EXCERPT FROM: Concord Monitor
By Karen Langley
A waiting list for families seeking child-care assistance has grown three times as fast as expected but has not trimmed costs enough to avoid further cuts.
Faced with a projected $6 million deficit in state child-care costs, the Child Development Bureau in October stopped accepting all but a few applicants seeking aid. Officials said freezing most additions would eliminate the deficit by the end of June, when they said the first wait-listed children might begin receiving subsidies.
When the waitlist began, the bureau administrator said she expected the families of 1,100 children might be waiting for child-care assistance by the end of June. But the list already has reached nearly that length, with 967 children waiting by Thursday morning. Two children on average join the list each business hour, and there could be 3,000 children waiting by the new fiscal year, said Ellen Wheatley, administrator of the Child Development Bureau.
No child has been removed from the waiting list, though families are exempt from the list if they receive cash welfare assistance, host foster children or are considered at risk.
The waiting list was implemented for the first time this fall as a way to keep the child-care program on budget in a year when unprecedented numbers of families had sought aid. But even with more and more children awaiting assistance, the freeze has not succeeded in eliminating the projected deficit. As of this week, the waiting list had reduced that shortfall by $2 million.
The next step to cut costs took effect yesterday, when the state suspended monetary awards it gives child-care centers that meet standards above basic licensing. Officials from the Child Development Bureau will meet next week with child-care providers to determine how to make up the projected $4 million deficit.
Wheatley said meeting the budget is a "moving target," since some expenses can be neither predicted nor controlled. Twenty of the 25 weeks since the waitlist began have been over budget, she said.
The number of children needing child-care assistance has grown significantly in the last two years, and program costs have risen as the proportion of infants on assistance rolls has jumped. Infants accounted for 25 percent of program beneficiaries in August, up from 10 percent in February 2008. The state rate for infants in part time care is nearly twice that for school age children.
Families receiving subsidies pay a portion of their child-care bills while the state makes up the difference. Each family pays on a sliding scale based on income, so that families with incomes below the federal poverty line pay 1 percent of their income and families earning between 220 and 250 percent of the poverty line pay 20 percent. Poverty guidelines are now at $14,500 for a family of two and $22,000 for a family of four.
The child-care assistance program is budgeted at $30 million annually, with $18 million from the federal government and $12 million from the state. The budget has remained level in recent years. The waiting list would have begun as early as April had the program not received federal stimulus money.
Child-care referral networks this month will begin contacting families new to the waiting list to tell them about any inexpensive options in their area, said Marcy Rothenberg, program manager at the network run by the Easter Seals in Concord. Rothenberg said families may have to be flexible if they want to find care without state assistance.
"Sometimes families have to go with something of a lesser quality to find a match," she said.
Child-care providers and Child Development Bureau officials have met with officials from the education and labor departments about the limits on program supports. Quality early education can prevent children from needing state assistance later in life, said Jackie Cowell, executive director of the nonprofit Early Learning New Hampshire.
"Everyone's generally concerned," she said. "The question is where's the money going to come from."