NEWARK — Some local child care centers are reducing staff hours and benefits and looking at possibly cutting part-time care programs as the result of cuts to state child care subsidies that will go into effect Sunday.
"It has a lot of directors and day cares scrambling to figure out how to make ends meet," said Margaret Riggs, director of Southtowne Kids Care in Heath. "We're watching and cutting where we can and just hope we stay full (enrollment)."
Barb Martin, supportive services supervisor for Licking County Job and Family Services, said the reductions in subsidy payments were the result of state budget cuts and the outcome of the 2008 Ohio Child Care Market Rate Survey, which measures unsubsidized childcare rates being charged based on age group, amount of time a child is in care and geographic location.
"There are substantial changes (in subsidy reimbursements)," Martin said. "A lot of centers have a lot of our children, and they're feeling tied."
Child care centers will lose between $12 and $30 a week, or 9 percent to 29 percent, per full-time child, depending on the child's age. In-home care providers are hit less, losing $23 per child at most (18 percent) or in the case of toddlers, gaining about $2 a week.
Martin said Licking County Job and Family Services, which contracts with local centers and in-home providers on behalf of the state, sent out new contracts in the last week.
As a result of the budget cuts, Ohio plans to save $300 million in fiscal year 2010-11, said Ohio Job and Family Services' Angela Terez in an e-mail. The savings come from a combination of lowered reimbursement rates, elimination of the Early Learning Initiative and a change in income eligibility.
For child care centers that have a high number of subsidized children, the rate cuts will be tough to bear, area directors say. They cannot collect more from the parents, who contribute to their child care cost based on their ability to pay.
Shaun Linton, director of My Place on East Main Street, said about 90 percent of the 200 children enrolled there receive subsidized tuition. He is "very concerned" about how the cuts will affect his program, staff and services.
My Place offers transportation for its school-aged children and will implement a $5 fee per child each week and will discontinue service to some schools, including Heath, Hillview and Cherry Valley, he said.
The school also is reducing health
"That's putting a lot of people back down to minimum
Kim Brown, owner and director of Bright Beginnings on Mount Vernon Road, said she is cutting staff hours because there is nowhere else to cut.
"For me to cut expenses right now, I myself am going to have to go into the classroom," she said.
She said she is most concerned about the impact of reimbursement rates for part-time care, defined as seven to 25 hours a week, and hourly care. Subsidies for part-time school-age children were cut by 31 percent, or $22 a week, and part-time preschoolers, by 28 percent, or $26 a week. Hourly rates for school-age children were cut by 44 percent.
"They crunched the numbers for part-time," Brown said. "Some centers are nixing their part-time because it's not cost-effective for them."