State of California Invests in Community Midwifery

Song-Brown Health Care Workforce Training grant programs are administered by the Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) to train primary care practitioners to provide health care in California’s medically underserved areas.

In 2025, HCAI funded the development and launch of two new licensed midwife schools in California: Cerro Coso Community College, launching in September 2026, California's first Licensed Midwife Associate of Science degree program; and Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery (CCSM) - California Satellite, a hybrid community midwifery program for California residents, with its first day of classes August 2026.

In order to qualify for Song-Brown grant funding through HCAI, schools must meet stringent benchmark scores on the following requirements:

• Mandatory anti-racism/implicit bias training for all faculty, program staff, applicant reviewers, and decision makers
• A documented zero tolerance policy for discrimination and established discrimination reporting systems
• Faculty members, lecturers, and staff who reflect the cultural diversity of the students
• A mentorship program available to all students that strives to pair students with faculty/staff members with shared lived experience
• A diverse admissions committee to mitigate implicit bias in the selection process
• Admissions policies that account for applicants' socioeconomic status and prioritizes students from areas of unmet need (AUN)
• Programmatic strategies to implement culturally responsive care training into the curriculum and provide students with training in cultural competency
• A patient-focused/clinic-focused curriculum that builds health equity knowledge and competencies