Child Care Shortage, Delays In State Assistance Create Difficult Choices For Parents, Providers

Every week, someone calls in Groton asking if there’s room for another child. There isn’t.

“We get calls every day for spaces that we don’t have,” said Susan Corrice, finance director at the center.  “We get calls from people who are pregnant.”

Riverfront on Thames Street has 97 children enrolled, and a waiting list for every age group, site director Gayle McCain said. Almost all the families the center serves – 94 percent - receive some form of child care assistance.

The local group Children First Groton released a survey last month saying the lack of affordable child care in town has become a source of stress and hardship for families.

The U.S. Census also recently 38.3 percent of single women in Groton with children under 18 lived below poverty during the period from 2005 to 2009, the most recent data available. The percentage of households headed by women in poverty in Groton is higher than the state (29.8 percent), New London County (27.9 percent) and neighboring New London (31.1 percent).

Child care center directors said they are seeing a shortage of day care slots, a decline in funding from the state and other sources, and a delay in payments from the state's child care assistance program Care 4 Kids.

How Care 4 Kids Works

The program, run by the Department of Social Services, covers a portion of day care for low- and moderate-income parents who work. Parents must have a job or be learning job skills through an approved program to obtain benefits. They must pay for a portion of the child care themselves, even if the amount is small.

Parents submit evidence of their income such as pay stubs to apply for Care 4 Kids, then wait to hear whether their application is accepted.

Child care providers said the problem is there’s a 30-day lag time between the time a family applies to the program and when the money actually arrives at the center.

During that time, the center must make a decision: Require the parent,  even if the parent is earning minimum wage, to pay the full day care cost, or cover the cost itself.

“I don’t think it should take (Care 4 Kids) 30 days to go over paperwork,” said Karen Costello, director of in Groton. “If they’re missing something, (they) can call me. That’s what annoys me. They’ll send me a letter.

“It’s a very long, tedious process.”

The Department of Social Services sets the policies of Care 4 Kids, and funds it with state and federal money. It contracts daily operation to United Way of Connecticut.

Department of Social Services spokesman David Dearborn said in an email that there is a wait time because of the volume of applications for Care 4 Kids. He said families must also submit the information needed to process their applications, and that is not always done in a timely manner.

"However, once everything is received and the family is deemed eligible, the case is effective retroactive to the day the application was received," he said. About $97 million will be spent on Care 4 Kids this fiscal year, he said.

As of December 2010, 214 children under age 12 in Groton were receiving assistance through the program, he said.

More than half of the children at Children’s Nook receive Care 4 Kids. The center has about 45 children enrolled, including preschoolers bused to Claude Chester Elementary before and after school.

Who Pays During The Lag Time

Kimberly Ryone, director of in Groton, said Care 4 Kids takes about two months to kick in, in her experience.

“So those parents have to come up with those initial two months, and personally, if you’re going to need Care 4 Kids, you can’t pay for full-time day care,” she said.

The center has about 45 children enrolled at any given time. Five receive Care 4 Kids. She said the program will make accommodations to help parents, but must also operate as a business.

 “We’re basically a month out of that money,” she said. “We know that we’re promised it, but as a business, you have to have that money to pay your teachers and everyone else.” Parents are typically asked to pay the full cost for the month, then be reimbursed, she said.

Full-time child care at the center is $202 per week for an infant, $192 a week for a toddler, and $165 a week for preschool-age child.

Parents Waiting Months

Riverfront, which serves children from ages 12 weeks to 12 years old, offers a sliding scale for parents and is open from 6 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Some parents have been on the waiting list more than six months.

“I started working here in January, and there were people who had called up the previous June,” site director McCain said. “At this point, the first person on the waiting list called last August for preschool.”

Riverfront receives state money to cover the cost for 24 infants and toddlers and 14 preschoolers, Corrice said. In addition, United Way and private sources like the Community Foundation provide scholarships for needy families, she said.

But donations have declined in recent years, and cuts have been passed on to the child care center, she said. During the last two years, funding from United Way has fallen from $196,000 to $166,000, she said.

At the same time, Corrice said two nearby centers closed their programs and another center recently announced plans to close. Mitchell College notified Riverfront by e-mail that it would close its child care program as of June.

“I think it’s devastating" because of a shortage of child care in New London as well, she said. As a regional child care center, Riverfront also serves families from New London.

Room, But No Money For Staff

Clarissa Miles, site manager of the Early Childhood Development Center on Poquonnock Road, said the nonprofit center closed a room that served 20 preschoolers in the summer of 2009, because of funding cuts. It’s never reopened.

“I still have a classroom sitting here empty that we just can’t (staff). I literally don’t have the funding,” she said.

The center receives money through the School Readiness program, Department of Social Services, Family Resource Center, and United Way.

All of the 31 children enrolled receive child care assistance. She said her staff are expected to meet high standards, but are not paid as well as they should be.

“It’s amazing the work that I and my staff are required to do because (we’re) nationally accredited, (and) we’re a school readiness site,” she said. “People are walking in here with degrees, (and) getting paid $10 an hour. “

When donations and state contributions decline, Corrice said parents and centers are left with difficult choices.

“They end up losing their care," she said, "Or we end up carrying families that we can’t afford to carry.”