EXCERPT FROM: The Coloradoan
By Kevin Duggan
Local child care facilities and working families are starting to feel the pinch of tight county and state budgets.
As of March 1, the Larimer County Human Services Department suspended enrolling low-income families in the Child Care Assistance Program, or CCAP, because of funding problems. The program also reduced payments to licensed child-care centers for CCAP-subsidized families by 7.5 percent.
Changes in the program — including putting eligible families on a waiting list — are likely to have far-reaching impacts on low-income families and their access to affordable child care, said Bev Thurber, executive director of the Early Childhood Council of Larimer County.
Families on the waiting list won't know if and when they will receive help with child care costs, she said. Families receiving CCAP that lose the benefit for some reason could end up at the end of the waiting list.
"That's going to make it very difficult for them to take jobs," Thurber said. "If we're talking about peo-ple moving toward self sufficiency, this is only going to produce more barriers for them."
Without the CCAP subsidy, a single mother working a low-wage job may find she cannot afford the child care she needs, Thurber said. And without work, she won't be able to support her family without public support.
Not all child care facilities accept CCAP clients. Those that do are going to see less revenue because of the payment cutbacks, said Stephane Tillman, director of family education at the Family Center-La Familia, a nonprofit child care center at 309 Hickory St.
The average cost of all-day care of an infant at a licensed facility is $265 a week, according to the early childhood council. With the reduced payments, CCAP support for an infant is $199 a week.
The Family Center-La Familia has 60 children in its El Nidito — the little nest — daytime child care program. The center also offers after-school and home-visitation programs.
The center offers sliding-scale tuition for clients based on their incomes, but there are only so many dollars available for scholarships, Tillman said.
"The challenge is going to be maintaining the quality of our program," she said. "You have to maintain your licensing requirements, but we try to go beyond that.
"We have teachers we value, and they need employment. We need to pay the mortgage. We need reve-nue to keep our doors open."
Of the 43 families in El Nidito, roughly 90 percent are CCAP participants, Tillman said. Reduced pay-ments are expected to add up to about $1,500 a month, the equivalent of the pay for a staff position.
Money crunch
County officials say the changes to CCAP are needed to respond to a sluggish economy, stagnant fund-ing and a growing demand for human services.
In recent years, human services has subsidized CCAP by up to $2 million a year from reserves funds in the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, or TANF, program.
But with demand for TANF increasing, the department needs to limit the amount it supplements the child-care program to $1.3 million a year.
That means about 356 children will have to be removed from the program, primarily through attrition. A family can lose CCAP benefits if its income exceeds eligibility requirements or it fails to recertify its financial situation and need for the program every six months.
As of Friday, 10 families have been put on the waiting list, said Laura Sartor, deputy manager of hu-man service's benefits planning division.
Of those, nine had income at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty level and will be given first priority, Sartor said. For a family of four, 130 percent of the poverty level translates to $2,389 a month.
The enrollment cap on the program and waiting list will be in effect as long as necessary to stabilize the program's funding, Sartor said. How long that might be is not clear.
If the number of children on the program does not decrease enough, the department will have lower its income requirements for to be eligible for the program, she said.
Dealing with the cutbacks has been "heartbreaking" for human service staff members as they work with clients, Sartor said. But they have few options given the funding problems facing the state govern-ment.