The Emergency Child Care Bridge Program for Foster Children is designed to reduce child care barriers for children and parenting youth in the foster care system. TrustLine is California’s registry of licensed-exempt childcare providers who have completed a criminal background screening and clearance process.
Before a licensed exempt provider can care for a Bridge Program eligible child, the provider must be registered on TrustLine. Bridge Program caregiver families and county welfare departments can now reimburse license-exempt providers for TrustLine costs. A total of $15,000 is available in Fiscal Year 2020-21, and $16,000 is anticipated to be available for Fiscal Year 2021-22. (ACWDL, April 20, 2021.)