Frequently Asked Questions

Check out some of the most frequently asked questions we receive, below.

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Children’s Services Councils (CSCs), established by Florida statute, are independent taxing districts located in various counties throughout Florida. CSCs use local property taxes to fund local programs and services that improve the lives of local children and families. Palm Beach County voters created Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County in 1986, and voters reauthorized the council in 2014.

Children’s Services Councils are not child welfare agencies. The state Department of Children & Families, local juvenile courts and, in some cases, local law enforcement agencies investigate child abuse and neglect, and determine whether to remove a child from their home. If you are concerned about a child’s immediate safety, please contact the Florida Department of Children & Families Abuse Hotline at 1-800-962-2873 or submit an abuse report online at https://reportabuse.dcf.state.fl.us/.

Nor do Children’s Services Councils collect child support. If you have a question about child support in Palm Beach County, please contact the Palm Beach County Clerk & Comptroller at 561-355-6511 or learn more by visiting the Palm Beach County Clerk & Comptroller, here.
 

Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County’s board sets a millage (tax) rate every year in the fall to determine how much in taxes is collected from property owners. The 2025 millage rate is .4908 per every $1,000 in taxable property. A Palm Beach County owner of a single-family home with a taxable property value of $375,000 (with $50,000 in typical exemptions) will pay about $160 in ad valorem taxes. 

Children’s Services Council provides funding for scholarships to help pay for child care, afterschool care and summer camp. Many factors determine whether a family is eligible for assistance. 

For questions about scholarships for child care or afterschool care, please contact the Early Learning Coalition of Palm Beach County at 561-514-3300 or visit the Early Learning Coalition of Palm Beach County website. This is the organization that determines eligibility and administers the scholarships. 

Summer camp scholarships are administered by Palm Beach County Youth Services Department. Families can apply online once the application is available, typically in early February. For more information about summer camp scholarships, call 561-242-5738 or visit the Palm Beach County Youth Services Department’s Summer Camp Scholarship website. 

Children’s Services Council funds developmental screenings for children under age 6 in Palm Beach County. These screenings are free to all Palm Beach County families and are performed by Child Development Specialists from HomeSafe. To request a free developmental screening, please call HomeSafe at 561-383-9871. For other questions about child development, please call 2-1-1 and ask for Help Me Grow (for children 8 and younger) or ask for the Special Needs Hotline. For more on Children’s Services Council’s services for children and families, visit our Families landing page.

For open employment opportunities, and information on how to apply, please visit CSC’s employment webpage.

Children’s Services Council funds organizations in a number of ways. Typically, after determining a need in the community based on data and research, CSC will release a competitive bid – such as Request for Proposals (RFP), Request for Qualifications (RFQ) or Invitation to Negotiate (ITN). Through this process, CSC will accept and review applications, and then choose and contract with an organization (or organizations) to provide a specific service in the community. These contracts are brought to our council for final approval.

CSC also funds local organizations through two grant opportunities, the Great Ideas Initiative and the Healthy, Safe & Strong Fund. To view the various types of funding we offer, please click here.

All funding opportunities are posted on our website when they become available. We also share them via social media and through email updates. To find out more about how to receive funding from CSC, please click here.

To sign up to receive notifications about funding opportunities, please follow this link to our email signups.

For businesses interested in providing products or services directly to Children’s Services Council (i.e. janitorial services, phone services, kitchen products, printing needs), please click here to visit our Types of Funding page.

To ensure our contracted programs are producing the best results for children and families, the following are required and completed on a regular basis: an on-going performance assessment through the Comprehensive Program Performance Assessment (CPPA) process, on-site monitoring of our funded programs, budget monitoring and agency audits. 

If program performance, contract compliance or business continuity concerns are identified, CSC staff use appropriate levels of intervention and action, as required. For more information on contract monitoring, please visit our Providers landing page.

Children’s Services Council prefers that donations go to organizations/programs that serve families directly. Please visit our What We Fund page to see a list of nonprofits with which we contract. Some of these organizations accept specific items based on the needs of the families they serve and many also welcome volunteers, so it’s best to contact them directly.

Palm Beach County has tons of other worthy nonprofits, which CSC does not fund, that accept donations on behalf of the families they serve. If you would like to donate, we suggest you contact 2-1-1 or the Nonprofit Chamber of Palm Beach County if you have a specific item to donate (such as medical equipment, toys, children’s clothing, etc.) for further guidance.

If you are interested in requesting a CSC speaker, connecting with us about an outreach event or receiving materials such as resources guides or EveryParent app cards, please contact our Communications Division at Communications@cscpbc.org.