New mother Kaylynn Banks enjoys the time she gets to spend with her baby.

Banks’ maternity leave from her job as a full-time housekeeper ends in a week, and the single mother worries about the cost of providing day care for her daughter, Peyton, 5 weeks old.

“I’m going to have to either make more money or my mom could watch her, or I don’t know,” said Banks, 20, of Braddock, who said she makes about $21,320 annually. She said she hadn’t explored all her options, including getting financial assistance from state or county programs.

With high levels of unemployment and employers freezing or cutting wages, more people are eligible for government-subsidized child care, industry experts and advocates say. Government cutbacks, however, have some people concerned about waiting lists for these programs swelling and requiring parents to increase copayments for services.

“Even though Pennsylvania’s economy is in recovery, we have 60 percent more unemployment than in 2007 when the recession began,” said Christie Balka, director of child care and budget issues at Public Citizens for Children and Youth, a child advocacy group in Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania’s Child Care Works program, which county contractors manage, provides financial assistance for child care to low-income parents who are working or enrolled in school.

The budget for the program was $716 million in 2009-10 and $743 million in 2010-11. The state cut it to $709 million in the 2011-12 budget.

The number of children it serves increased nearly 14 percent over five years to 134,848, according to the state Department of Public Welfare.

The state will ask parents to contribute higher copayments. For a family of four, the copayments for child care range from $5 to $100 weekly depending on annual income. Public Welfare has not determined how much the copayments will increase, but the Pennsylvania Child Care Association in Harrisburg said the increases are targeted to save $16 million.

“Right now, with subsidy copays increasing, we are simply concerned that poor families will choose unlicensed care, which may cost less … but it may not be the best quality care,” Balka said.

Public Welfare officials set about cutting its expenses by increasing the copayments, reducing payments to facilities that provide after-hours and weekend care and decreasing administrative costs, spokeswoman Anne Bale said.

“Our goals in knowing that we’ve had to cut programs across the board is to make sure that we didn’t affect the children, that the effects would maybe be felt by providers or other types of people who are involved,” she said.

The waiting list for Child Care Works fluctuates each year, but generally averages from 8,000 to 11,000 children across the state, Bale said. There are now about 7,500 children on the list.

Showing benefits

About 500 children in Allegheny County are waiting for Child Care Works funding, but it’s too soon to say what impact, if any, the budget cuts will have, said Nedra Perkins, vice president of early learning services at the YWCA, which contracts with the state to oversee the subsidies in the county.

In Allegheny County, 13,401 children are being served by the program now, compared to 15,040 at the same time last year, she said.

Officials worry about parents struggling with the increase in copayments, she said. The YWCA would work with other advocacy groups to get aid to families, but the county and nonprofit organizations are dealing with their own belt-tightening, she said.

“But again, you’re looking at everyone is in need of funds,” she said.

Advocates of subsidized child care say subsidy programs help break the cycle of poverty that keeps families, particularly single mothers, in low-paying jobs.

“Research has shown that it’s a very big factor in helping single mothers get and keep jobs, and helping them improve their earnings,” said Curtis Skinner, director of family economic security at the National Center for Children in Poverty in New York.

Others say Public Welfare needs to cut spending. It’s the largest department in state government, surpassing education, said Nate Benefield, director of policy analysis at the Commonwealth Foundation, a limited-government group in Harrisburg.

“Just the rate of increase over time is unsustainable,” said Benefield, who said welfare programs should be social safety nets that help beneficiaries become independent of government aid.

Parents forced to adjust

A survey of 1,000 parents in a 2010 study by the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies in Arlington, Va., found 21 percent of parents in poverty reported that job losses or reduced work shifts led them to change their child care arrangements, compared to 5 percent of middle-income parents.

Local child care providers report more children receiving subsidies, but no big drop in enrollment.

Founded in 1966, Shady Lane School in Point Breeze experienced its toughest enrollment year in 2009-10, Executive Director Patrick Webster said, before it rebounded.

“That was a pretty rare year for us when we ended up with a pretty noteworthy number of vacancies,” said Webster, who said more parents than usual withdrew their children mid-year because of work-related issues.

The school raises money through fundraising activities to retain children from low-income families who don’t qualify for government subsidies, he said.

At ABC’s for Children in Scott, an increase of 5 percentage points to 15 percent of children receiving subsidies in the past year could be because of parents’ financial difficulties related to the economy, said Jennie Crandall, co-owner of the 29-year-old facility.

Hug Me Tight Childlife Centers Inc. in the Hill District hasn’t suffered enrollment losses because of the economy, but 98 percent of the children enrolled are receiving state subsidies, Director Wanda Franklin said.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review  – July 24, 2011 – Leer artículo en línea