I am a single parent- transplant from NYS (upstate) when children were small. My older child is a successful UC Berkeley grad and received excellent financial aid there- both merit and need based. My younger child went to an excellent local CC and is now transferring to either UC Davis or UC Berkeley, also with excellent aid. The educational opportunities here are amazing. Do not automatically assume you won’t qualify for aid. Merit based aid is available at both public and private colleges/universities. There are many top notch private schools in CA that offer great aid packages, even if you don’t think you qualify. The CSU’s are incredible choices to have as “back-ups”- some of them have even gotten more selective than UC’s in certain majors.
Your D is doing very well, and in general I would advise: if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.
I know we pay a lot to live here, but in my opinion you just can’t beat CA.
Good luck with your decision.