Success Story | Child Care Resource Center, CA

ABOUT CCRC

The Child Care Resource Center (CCRC) of California has been providing essential early childhood education and care services to children, families, and child care providers since 1976. With a mission to cultivate child, family, and community well-being, CCRC consistently seeks new and innovative ways to serve the community.

THE CHALLENGE

As CCRC’s early childhood education and care services expanded into the communities of the Antelope, San Fernando, and Santa Clarita Valleys, and the entirety of San Bernardino County, one significant challenge they faced was managing vast amounts of client data spread across myriad systems.

With over 700 professional staff members serving more than 50,000 children and families in 20 different locations each month, managing the sheer volume of client data became an increasingly daunting task.

The CCRC Research Division recognized that juggling vast amounts of data in spreadsheets, filing cabinets, and myriad small databases was ineffective. Information silos meant early childhood education and care program administrators and staff were not always privy to the same or the most up-to-date information. And the lack of a unified system compromised data quality and made accurate record-keeping difficult.

"Previously, we had siloed systems in place. Managing data and sharing data across counties or agencies proved difficult."

– CCRC | Research Manager

CCRC sought a data management solution that could streamline data intake processes, promote efficiency, and ultimately benefit the families and early childhood education and caregivers served by CCRC.

THE SOLUTION

To address their data management challenges, CCRC sought a modern software solution with active participation in the early childhood education domain. That is why they turned to VerticalChange’s data management platform, purpose built for the unique needs of education, health and human service organizations.

Program staff began using VerticalChange primarily to collect data. Program evaluators analyzed the data to assess the quality and efficacy of CCRC’s early childhood education and care programs and services.

“VerticalChange’s features have allowed CCRC to mold a data management system to collect, monitor, and conduct program evaluation for Quality Start San Bernardino (QSSB). Additionally, the report builder module’s ability to build and save reports allow for a quick click-and-play approach in calling data from the system.”

– JESSE PINEDA | Senior Research Analyst

Quality Start San Bernardino County (QSSB) works to increase the quality of early education programs for San Bernardino County’s youngest children through the development of a Quality Rating Improvement System (QRIS). Participating sites are rated every two years and receive support and incentives to gain and maintain the highest ratings through the system.

One significant advantage was the ability to centralize essential data in one system. This enabled CCRC to input data from statewide programs and securely share, as needed, across program providers. This seamless data integration across counties and agencies helped to break down information silos and improve collaboration and decision-making. Jesse Pineda, Senior Research Analyst for CCRC shared,

"VerticalChange has simplified task management for our staff by centralizing forms associated with each facility type that are necessary for the Common Data File.”

– JESSE PINEDA | Senior Research Analyst

Furthermore, VerticalChange helped CCRC maintain compliance with data privacy regulations. VerticalChange supports HIPAA and FERPA compliance and uses state-of-the-art Amazon Web Services (AWS) products where customer data is hosted in an isolated Amazon EC2 region using two Availability Zones (AZ). That meant by using S3, EC2, and other HIPAA-compliant components within the AWS environment, VerticalChange could deliver an affordable, cloud-based solution that ensures effective multi-agency collaboration and cost savings. CCRC’s Research Manager says:

"Our applications contain sensitive participant data. Since VerticalChange is built on AWS, we can confidently say our data is highly protected, and we can achieve FERPA compliance."

As an AWS Advanced Public Sector Partner, VerticalChange has been audited by AWS and passes some of their most strict implementation requirements. VerticalChange includes SSL encryption for communication within the application, and offers role-based permissions and access logs displaying all user requests for files/data.

CONCLUSION

CCRC’s success is a testament to the power of innovation and collaboration. With the help of VerticalChange, CCRC overcame the challenge of managing vast amounts of client data, streamlined their processes, and is continuing to improve the well-being of the children, families, and caregivers in the communities they serve.

Through VerticalChange’s centralized data system, CCRC has greatly reduced their reliance on manual processes and unlocked new levels of efficiency and collaboration. Freeing up researchers’ time to focus on meaningful programmatic evaluations enables CCRC to deliver on their promise of cultivating child, family, and community well-being.

VerticalChange has also demonstrated unparalleled versatility by adapting as CCRC’s needs evolved. CCRC’s researchers worked closely with the VerticalChange development team to tailor-fit the software to CCRC’s specific requirements.

“VerticalChange’s openness in working with other software has also been a huge plus for our Registry Integration project as we now work to create a connection between two data systems that will complement San Bernardino’s QRIS program.”

– JESSE PINEDA | Senior Research Analyst

As CCRC continues to evolve, VerticalChange remains a steadfast partner, ensuring that their data management solution evolves in lock-step with the organization’s needs.

At VerticalChange, we consider it a privilege to be part of the solution that helps CCRC and the communities they serve reach their full potential.