WALLINGFORD - As a state program makes changes to balance its budget, some local families are crossing their fingers in hopes that they'll still be able to afford child care.
Tamarah Smith, of Meriden, teaches kindergarten at Wallingford Community Day Care Center, where two of her three children attend preschool.
She was hired two years ago, equipped with an associate's degree, and has since begun pursuing a bachelor's degree in child studies on a state scholarship for staff at the center. Her husband, Joe, works full time at a local travel agency.
With new changes made to the state Department of Social Services' Care 4 Kids program, which subsidizes child care for moderate- to low-income families, the Smiths and 30 other families with small children at the facility could potentially be dropped from the program.
"If I could have stayed home with my kids, I would have," said Tamarah Smith, who said she broke down in tears when she found out the family had been accepted into the program four years ago. "We were very lucky. There's no way we could have afforded (day care) without it."
As of last month, Care 4 Kids provided child care assistance to 14,000 families and 21,000 children. Most fall either 50 percent below the state's median income of $93,821 for a family or have been involved in the national Temporary Family Assistance program.
On May 12, Care 4 Kids closed to new applicants not in the Temporary Family Assistance program. Additionally, families who began the program with an income below 50 percent of median will be dropped from the program if their income grows beyond that mark.
Director Kathy Queen has been with the center since 1977 and has experienced eligibility changes several times before.
"They tell us that for every time this kind of thing happens, it can take 5-7 years to repair the kind of damage that happens to the kids," said Queen, who calls herself a children and family advocate and walks through the art-lined hallways addressing children on a first-name basis. "Some kids, they never catch up again."
According to Hartford-based Connecticut Voices for Children, the average cost of child care in the state is $9,040 for preschool and $11,156 for infants and toddlers.
The families of the 110 children who fill the blue building on Wharton Brook Drive have either a single parent or two working parents, Queen said; they are not on the family assistance program. Forty-seven children attend on a sliding fee scale.
If they are disqualified from the program, preschool would no longer be an option for the Smith family.
"I'd have to stay at home," said Tamarah Smith on Tuesday, during a break in a class. She would also lose her scholarship, forcing her to discontinue her pursuit of a degree.
Current-year appropriations for Care 4 Kids are $93 million, and costs are $104 million. The program is making changes to combat a deficit, said David Dearborn, a spokesman for DSS. The program will also receive $10.8 million this year from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus package. Dearborn isn't sure how long the eligibility changes will last.
"It could be until the end of the fiscal year or longer," Dearborn said. "If history is any indication, the program has experienced this before over the decades. The state has a long commitment to child care services; however, in times of extreme budget emergencies like we're in now, the state has been known to make eligibility changes on a temporary basis."
"The problem is it hurts the working poor," Queen said. "They can't afford $300 a week at a private facility. If you cut Care 4 Kids, you hurt families, you hurt kids and you hurt the people that can't do it themselves."