User:Jtaylor1975/Child Care of Southwest Florida, Inc.

Child Care of Southwest Florida, Inc.

Child Care of Southwest Florida, Inc. was incorporated as a 501(c)3 organization in 1967 under the name of Lee County Day Care Advisory Board. The advisory board was the result of a study authorized by the State Department of Welfare in 1967 to examine child care needs in Lee County, Florida. The study found that there were 2,500 working women in the county with a total of 8,000 children and only 500 of the children were enrolled in a child care center or kindergarten. The Advisory Board had the responsibility to make recommendations.

Several other serious issues were revealed by the study. The County lacked available and affordable child care. There were no quality standards for the centers and caregivers were not required to have training. The Advisory Board, later called Lee County Child Care, Inc and in April 1988 became known as Child Care of Southwest Florida Inc., has made meeting these needs its mission.

In 1972, the Advisory Board became a Central Agency to provide subsidized child care in Lee County and later expanded into Hendry, Glades, and Collier Counties. The Agency managed the State Subsidized Contract; now known as the School Readiness and Voluntary Pre Kindergarten Contracts, until July 1, 2007.

In 1973, the Agency's first center, Covenant Learning Center, opened with 40 children whose families received subsidized child care funding.

In 1985, Child Care of Southwest Florida, Inc. became the training coordinating agency for the Florida Department of Children & Families.

In 1990, Child Care of Southwest Florida, Inc. began a resource and referral service to assist any parent in finding child care to meet their specific needs. The Agency provided this service until July 1, 2007.

For more than 25 years, Child Care of Southwest Florida, Inc. has been managing the USDA Child Care Food Program for family child care home and its directly operated child care centers. In 2007, Child Care of Southwest Florida, Inc. began offering the USDA child care food program to child care centers that weren't directly affiliated with the organization. The food program now serves child care centers and family child care homes in 16 south Florida counties.

Child Care of Southwest Florida hosts the Circles of Care(sm) early childhood annual conference.

The agency directly operates six child care centers in Lee and Hendry Counties.

A compliance audit is performed annually by an independent CPA firm. The agency's fiscal year is July 1 through June 30.