child care - Digital Library Collections

CHILD
CARE
ing more than $75,000 enrolled their children at
nearly twice the rate of families with income of
$10,000 a year or less.
Similar fmdings are presented in An Unfair
Head Start: California Families Face Gaps in Preschool
and Child Care Availability, a 1997 report by
the PACE Center at the University of CaHfornia at
Berkeley, the CaHfornia Child Care Resource and
Referral Network, and the University of Chicago.
According to the report, children's opportunity to
attend preschool or child care programs in CaMornia
depends largely on family income and where
they live. In some counties, notably Los Angeles,
parents in affluent areas are twice as likely to fmd a
child care or preschool slot as parents in poor areas.
Effective State and Local Initiatives
Several states are taking innovative steps to meet
the growing need for child care. As mentioned,
a number are helping more families pay for
child care by guaranteeing child care assistance to
all working families below a certain income level.
States are also pursuing creative approaches to improving
the quality ofcare.
Investing in caregivers in North Carolina.
North Carolina's Teacher Education and Compensation
Helps (T.E.A.C.H.) Early Childhood Project
recognizes that adequate training and compensation
for teachers are essential ingredients for
raising the quabty of care. The program offers
scholarships to help defray tuition and other costs
for child care teachers, center directors, and family
child care providers pursuing child care credentials
or degrees in child development. Some scholarships
also include paid leave time. What is most
unusual about T.E.A.C.H. is that participants receive
wage increases or bonuses when they complete
an agreed number ofcourse hours.
More than 5,000 providers in the state have
gone through the program. On average, participants
working toward associate degrees in 1997
completed 18 credit hours and received a 10 percent
increase in wages. Fewer than 10 percent left
their jobs during the year, compared with 42 percent
of child care staff statewide. Such low turnover
is reJl?arkable and enormously beneficial to
children. .
Funding for T.E.A.C.H. comes from foundations,
corporate contributions, the Child Care and
Development Block Grant, and state funds. Program
participants and their sponsoring child care
centers also pay a portion of the cost. T.E.A.C.H.
has already spread to Colorado, Florida, Georgia,
Illinois, and New York.
Targeting young children in Oklahoma. Oklahoma
has recognized the importance of providing
comprehensive services to infants and toddlers.
With $1 million transferred from its TANF block
grant, the state plans to support an Early Head
Start program that follows the federal Early Head
Start standards. Other JANF funds will be used to
make more farniHes eligible for child care assistance,
reduce fa~es' copayments, hire additional
staff to inspect child care programs, and provide
higher reimbursement rates to programs that offer
better care.
Mter-school care in Georgia. Georgia is investing
in after-school child care through the 3:00 Project.
A component ofthe Georgia School-Age Care
Initiative, the program began with a $125,000 public
investment in 1994 to support programs for
middle-school children at 17 sites. Program evaluations
showing improvement in students' grades,
attendance, and behavior convinced the legislature
to authorize and appropriate an additional $1 million
in 1997 for a statewide after-school program
for middle-school students. State funds have also
leveraged $172,000 from private and corporate
foundations and more than $800,000 in direct,
in-kind support to expand and improve after-school
opportunities. The importance of safe and supportive
settings for children has been higWighted by
the governor's proposal to increase funds for afterschool
and summer reading programs to $10 million
in 1998.
A community venture in New York. In the state
of New York the Rochester-Monroe County Early
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