EXCERPT FROM: Calaveras Enterprise
By Krissi Krob
The need for affordable quality child care continues to surpass the supply, according the 2009 California Child Care Portfolio, recently released by the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network.
This portfolio is the seventh in a biennial series of statewide and county-by-county reports documenting licensed child care supply and demand in California. The data was collected in 2008 from area child care resources and referral programs and prepared by the state Child Care Resource and Referral network. The 61 locally based, state-funded child care resource and referral agencies work to improve the quality, availability and affordability of child care in their communities, according to a press release from the state organization.
“As California struggles to rebound from the economic downturn and make education a top priority, the data in this report makes it clear that addressing access to quality licensed child care is essential as a foundation for children's early learning experience, and for supporting working families,” said Julia Brownley of the 14th Assembly District and chair of the Assembly Education Committee.
More than 600,000 children ages birth to 5 years old live in poverty, the report indicates. Statewide, the number of children living in poverty has increased 5 percent between 2006 and 2008.
“This increase in poverty underscores the importance of maintaining child care subsidies to serve low-income families, including publicly funded centers, which represent about a third of licensed center-based program,” the release said.
Statewide, 80 percent of child care requests to resource and referral services for child birth to 5 years old are for full-time care, according to the portfolio. Seventy-five percent of parents request care because they are working. In Amador, 76 percent of parents are requesting full-time care and 77 percent are because they are working. In Calaveras, 81 percent seek full-time care and 87 percent need care due to working.
Finding care for infants in also a problem, according to Kelly Graesch, program director for Calaveras Resource and Referral Services. Only 48 of the 675 slots in Calaveras' licensed child care centers are for infant care, but 41 percent of parent requests for care are for infants. Graesch said Resource and Referral Services is working to educate providers about infant care and to debunk some of the myths related to the field.
“Really, watching an infant is so rewarding,” Graesch said. “Every second they're developing. Every second is a miracle.”
Parents across California lack care options during nontraditional hours. About 9 percent of parents request care during the evening or on weekends; however, only 1 to 2 percent of licensed centers offer this type of care. While family child care homes are more likely to offer care during nontraditional hours, they only represent about one-third of the overall licensed supply. In Amador, 16 percent of parents request care during the evening or on weekends, compared with 4 percent in Calaveras. In Amador, 28 percent of family child care homes offer evening or weekend care, and in Calaveras that number in only 3 to 5 percent.
More than half of the resource and referral networks included in the portfolio reported significant changes triggered primarily by foreclosures and unemployment. And while more child care locations have opened in Calaveras this year, thanks to new preschools, the county is not immune to the downturn.
“Just here in San Andreas recently we've had two family child care homes leave the San Andreas area,” Graesch said. One left because of a property foreclosure. San Andreas has a Head Start state preschool and other child care centers, Graesch said, but those do not meet the needs of every family here. “It seems like it's small, but two family child care homes closing in San Andreas affects the availability of working families to be able to find care. It really does.”
Graesch added that resource and referral networks across the state are keeping a close eye on emerging child care providers that will be needed when the economy starts to pick up. Her office works with providers on ways they might be able to retain families struggling financially, including working with budgets and considering accepting part-time children. Calaveras Resource and Referral Services has a subsidy program in place to assist families in need with paying for child care, and Graesch said there is always a waiting list for that program.
“We're doing OK,” Graesch said of child care in Calaveras, but “that's not say that the providers are not struggling.”