FAIRFIELD COUNTY — Fewer families will be eligible to receive assistance for child care costs as a result of recent state cuts to budgets of day care facilities.
Families whose income is above 150 percent of the federal poverty guideline will no longer be able to receive Title 20 assistance from Fairfield County Job & Family Services. Families at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level were eligible before the guidelines changed Aug. 23.
The Title 20 funding is one of several changes in the state budget that some local day care administrators fear could severely hurt them or their clients in the near future.
Kellie Link, co-owner of Small Wonders Day Care in Lancaster, said 40 percent of her parents rely on Title 20 funding for their child care costs.
"It's going to affect families new to child care and will make it much more difficult for them to qualify (for Title 20)," Link said. "It's a shame because (Title 20) is fantastic for families who are trying to get back on their feet or for single moms or parents trying to go back to school."
Other centers, such as OU-L Kids at the Ohio University Lancaster Campus, won't be affected much because they receive minimal funding from the state. OU-L Kids provides day care services for staff members and students.
Parents who received assistance through Title 20 before Aug. 23 still will receive funding because they will be grandfathered in under the old requirements. But families new to child care will have to follow the revised guidelines, Link said.
Jayne Powell, child care director for the Before and After School Program at the Robert K. Fox Family Y, said a third of her parents use Title 20 funding.
She said families that are not eligible for the funds could receive assistance through Y Partners for Youth and the United Way of Fairfield County. She said $732 was available through United Way in 2009 to help parents afford child care.
But "it's limited funding," Powell said. "Once it's gone, it's gone."
Parents aren't the only ones who will be affected by the new state cuts. Day care administrators are feeling the pinch as well.
Centers will lose between $12 and $30 (18 percent) a week per full-time child, depending on the child's age, because of lowered reimbursement rates from the state.
Subsidies for part-time school-age children were cut by 31 percent, or $22 a week, and 28 percent for part-time preschoolers. Part-time care is defined as seven to 25 hours a week.
Powell said the Family Y's preschool program won't be as affected by the decreased reimbursement rates as the before and after school program will.
"Our school kids (in the before and after school program) are not here as much because they're in school for part of the day," Powell said. "Probably the maximum amount of time that they get with us is five hours a day."
She said she's unsure of how the decrease in money will affect her center.
Link said her center will lose about $8,000 a month because of the lowered reimbursement rates.