The California Department of Social Services reminds child care and development contractors that Social Security Numbers (SSN) shall not be collected from families receiving Child Care and Development (CCD) subsidized services. They should not collect or report this information from any member of the receiving family. It is not needed for the purpose of deciding eligibility and the state is prohibited from reporting personally identifiable information including SSNs. This was originally issued before the shift from the California Department of Education (CDE) to the California Department of Social Services.
Contractors cannot collect SSNs or any documentation for the purpose of enrollment and instead should use the Family Identification Case Numbers (FICN) as unique family identifiers. The FICN cannot contain SSNs of the Head-of-House or the child. Old records that may contain SSNs do not need to be redacted or destroyed. They should be maintained for at least five years or when an audit has been requested, until the audit is resolved, whichever is longer.
Sharing or using the information pertaining to the child or family is restricted to the purposes directly connected with the administration of the program. The use of the last four digits of SSNs is still required for income-based Household Meal Applications for the Child and Adult Care Food Program, administered by the CDSS and other Child Nutrition Programs administered by the CDE. (CCB 25-33, December 3, 2025.)