From Early Childhood Focus

Softening the Crunch

Posted in: Subsidy Programs, Illinois

By Sheila Holland
April 22, 2008

For families feeling the child care crunch in the midst of tough economic times, help could be on the way.

Infant care in McHenry County averages $169.26 a week for licensed home care and $240.71 for care in a licensed center, said Jan Fox, director of the McHenry County office of 4-C: Community Coordinated Child Care. The costs decrease as a child grows older, but parents of 1,094 children in the county use subsidies to help pay their child care costs in March.

A bill in the Illinois House of Representatives co-sponsored by Sen. Pamela Althoff, R-McHenry, could provide lower copays for qualifying families in Illinois.

�When we have an economy like we�re currently experiencing, many families are almost immediately affected,� Althoff said. �This legislation hopefully would help many of those families that fall just below but not low enough to receive any of the state or federal assistance.�

The bill could help 22-year-old Katelyn McConville, a mom majoring in business at Northern Illinois University who works as a receptionist. Without a subsidy, she said, her son�s tuition would cost her $900 a month.

�If [subsidies] went away, then I wouldn�t have anyone to take care of my son, I wouldn�t be able to work,� McConville said. �It would be more than half my monthly income to send him to day care.�

Fox said lower-income families paid a disproportionate amount of their income to child care, with the average person paying 8 percent to 9 percent of their earnings and lower-income families spending up to 15 percent on copays alone.

Senate bill 898 would raise the income level that qualifies for public aid for child care as well as establish percentages of an income that families would pay. For example, if a family earns less than 50 percent of the federal poverty rate, its copayment would be $1 a week.

McConville currently pays $288 a month for her son�s tuition. Stephanie Pacheco, director of Woodstock�s House of Children, said about 25 percent of the facility�s 92 students receive subsidies. However, it doesn�t cover everything.

Cheryl Rudd, director of Friendship House in Crystal Lake, said about 38 percent of the 155 students there received the subsidies. Friendship House asks parents to pay 90 percent of the difference and have assistance available for those who qualify. With groceries, fuel and energy prices rising, the center�s costs are climbing, too.

�Our expenses are rising quicker than our ability to pay,� Rudd said. �I think almost every bill I get has a fuel surcharge.�

Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce President Gary Reece said the local economy would suffer if parents such as McConville could not afford child care and had to quit their jobs.

�It�s about keeping trained workers,� Reece said. �It�s very expensive to get them trained. It�s not good all the way around; businesses need a stable workforce.�

By the numbers

1,094: The number of children receiving state financial assistance for child care in McHenry County at the end of March.

$169.26: average cost of one week of infant care in a licensed home

$240.71: average cost for one week of infant care in a licensed center

$148.36: average cost for one week of full-time care for a school-aged child in a licensed home.

$169.91: average cost for one week of full-time care for school-aged child in a licensed center

$398,550: state subsidies paid toward child care in McHenry County in March

Source: 4-C: Community Coordinated Child Care

Full article available at the Northwest Herald.