NEWARK -- On Friday, parents and employees at Montessori Community School donned badges that read "I'm at work today because I have child care" and posed for photographs as part of a last-minute campaign to tell Ohio legislators they fear for the future of child-care access and quality under 2009-10 state budget proposals.

Child-care advocates think budget cuts being considered could deeply hurt low-income families that receive subsidies, as well as the caregivers who watch the children each day.

Among the changes being considered are lowering the family income level for eligibility, decreasing the rate of reimbursement to providers, increasing the number of hours that constitute attendance categories and eliminating the Early Learning Initiative.

"Where will these children go if they can't afford the child care they receive now?" said Leslie Wagner, director of the Montessori school. "Parents won't be able to work. We will have to be supporting whole families, not just child care."

Although Friday's deal between Gov. Ted Strickland and legislative leaders appears to have put the budget stalemate on its way to an end, the specific effects on these areas wasn't immediately clear.

'IT'S GOING TO HURT US ALL'

The Early Care and Education Consortium, a nonprofit alliance of national early education providers, estimates 30,000 Ohio children will lose access to child care and 7,000 child-care providers will lose jobs if the Legislature adopts some proposals on the table.

Teri Peasley, program director for the county referral agency Child Care Connections, said the proposals will affect, to varying degrees, almost every child-care center in the county, as well as the almost 80 certified family child-care providers.

"It's going to hurt us all," Peasley said.

Julia Graves, director of Little Einstein on North 21st Street, said her business will be most affected by changing the hours required for full-time reimbursement. One proposal suggests raising the minimum for full-time status from 25 hours to 35 hours.

"We will have to hold a spot for those children, but we will not get the full-time rate for those children," she said.

In addition, state legislators have discussed reducing the reimbursement rates per child. Parents' copays, however, would not go up because those figures are based on family income, said Barbara Martin, of Licking County's Department of Job and Family Services. Therefore, providers would have to absorb the loss.

TIGHTER STANDARDS?

Where families might be hit is if ELI funding is eliminated or eligibility standards for assistance are tightened.

LEADS Head Start in Newark has 48 children enrolled through ELI funding. Marianne Chillinsky, Head Start director for LEADS, said the staff is working with families to redirect them to private pay or subsidized plans if possible. However, some families might fall through the cracks.

"There are some options for some families, and for some families there won't be," she said.

Those who can switch to subsidized care could find tighter restrictions under the new state budget. At last payroll, JFS distributed $644,000 in monthly child-care subsidies to cover expenses for more than 1,200 children. If a proposal to lower income levels for eligibility from 200 percent of the federal poverty level ($44,100 for a family of four) to 150 percent ($33,075 for a family of four) is enacted, about 175 children currently served would be above the new income threshold, Martin estimated.

John Fisher, JFS director, said part of the funding problem has come from Ohio's expansion of child-care subsidies in the past few years while relying on reserves of federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families grants to fund them.

"They continued to expand day care, but the funding was not replenishable," he said.

Meanwhile, his department in general is struggling to provide its most basic services. State spending for Medicaid and food stamps might see even deeper reductions than child-care assistance under the new Ohio spending plan, and JFC sent out a letter this week warning child-care providers their reimbursements might be less timely than in the past because of budget uncertainties.

For now, many involved are watching the state capital anxiously and wondering what the future will bring.

"We're all biting our nails," Chillinsky said. "It's like week by week."

Full text available at Newark Advocate.com.