Based on our organizing work in the community around welfare reform, UNHP realized that increased daycare in the Northwest Bronx is a critical issue. The question of childcare for low-income families trying to leave the welfare rolls and for the working poor trying to sustain employment is central to the current welfare reform debate. From our experience the bottom line is that Parents, motivated or required under new workfare programs, to look for jobs or enter training programs have been unable to due to a lack of an affordable, safe place to leave their children during the day.

Clearly, New York City cannot meet the current demand for adequate, safe, and affordable childcare. Citywide, new and approved care is desperately needed for children of all ages, and this need is accelerating as more and more public assistance recipients are mandated to work. The inadequate availability of childcare combined with the city’s aggressive program to assign applicants and recipients to work activities has often resulted in pressure to accept inappropriate or unsatisfactory care.

The current early childhood care and early education system of New York City is extremely fragmented. Multiple public and private agencies are involved in funding and oversight of programs. ACD (Agency for Child Development) is the City Agency designated to provide childcare for low-income families. ACD programs are monitored by the City, ensuring compliance with health and safety codes, staff training and other regulatory requirements. However, there is an acute shortage of funding available for such regulated programs. For years, there has been no increase in the capacity of ACD funded early childhood centers, school age centers and agency family day care. The Public Advocate’s Office reported this year that ACD currently serves one out of every seven children eligible for child care subsidies, with approximately 36,400 eligible children on ACD waiting lists for child care assistance.

With the childcare demand escalating precipitously in response to welfare reform mandates, more and more parents are resorting to informal care. A study done by ChildCare Inc. indicates that nearly 65 percent of those receiving public assistance in New York City are children. Close to 375,000 of these children are under age 13.

The only expansion has been in voucher care, mostly for informal providers- childcare that is uninspected, unmonitored and of unknown quality. Furthermore the City claims that the voucher expansion was funded by a one-time infusion of federal funds and not yet indicated if funding will be available to renew the expansion vouchers.

The Office of Employment Services also administers vouchers for childcare through the BEGIN program for parents on public assistance. These vouchers are referred to as TRE’s (Training Related Expenses). TRE’s can be used to pay for any type of childcare including informal care; informal care refers to an individual caring for no more than two children, either in the children’s home or the home of the caregiver. While a family member or neighbor can provide informal care, the quality of informal care often varies. New York City does not require basic health and safety provisions for informal caregivers, even if they receive public funds for the services they provide. There is no background check to determine if the potential provider has a criminal record or has been suspected of child abuse, and informal. Also, informal caregiver homes are not required to meet basic health and safety standards, such as the presence of working smoke detectors, radiator, and outlet covers.

These informal care arrangements can impede the parent’s successful transition to regular full time employment because there is often little stability in the care arrangement. Childcare agencies hear regularly from families whose care has been suspended because the provider becomes ill, finds another job, or is frustrated with delayed payments.

The vast majority of parents going through BEGIN work or training activities rely solely upon their BEGIN caseworker for information regarding their child care options. Because BEGIN’s case workers have very limited understanding about the City’s complex child care system and the range of regulated programs and services that are available, parents leave the agency believing these services are scarce and that there are no alternatives to informal care arrangements. According to Child Care Inc., city records indicate that over 85% of families in mandated work activities or transitional childcare use unregulated childcare arrangements. Little is known about the quality of care provided to these children. Caseworkers are encouraged to rely on informal care resources as an immediate child care solution for meeting HRA’s goal of moving PA families quickly into their work activities.

Child Care Inc. studies show that once given information on other regulated child care options, fewer than 15% of parents opted to remain in informal care arrangements as compared to the 83% reported by BEGIN. Because parents are given full discretion to select their child care preference, city agency officials have implied that given the statistics parents prefer informal childcare. To the contrary, the threat of sanctions (a reduction or suspension of public assistance benefits); overemphasis on unregulated options, lack of knowledge, and profusion of inaccurate information is what steers parents towards informal, unregulated care. This finding strongly indicates the need for an investment in substantial expansion of regulated ,services in high need communities.

Family day care has become increasingly important in light of the increasing need and because funding for center based care has not been increased. Family daycare refers to the care of more than two children in a caregiver’s home for more than three hours per day. Family daycare is different than informal care in that caregivers must undergo a self-certification process, called registration, which requires the completion of 15 hours of training in each subsequent two-year period. They must also provide references and a health form, and agree to be cleared through the State’s child abuse registry.

Family Daycare providers may or may not be involved in a family daycare network. A network is an organization that offers training and support services to a group of providers in a community and may assist them in becoming regulated. Most networks in the city have long waiting lists of providers interested in becoming network members. Networks play an important role in assuring that this type of home based care is regulated. Home based care, with oversight, can quickly provide excellent and cost effective care for infants toddlers and school age children. Because the work is done in the home and requires minimal capital, it may offer a rare entrepreneurial opportunity for low-income individuals.

Following a neighborhood meeting with the Deputy Commissioner Sterling of HRA a number of years ago, several groups in the Northwest Bronx began discussing ideas to meet the area’s childcare needs. This group, comprised of local day care providers, developers of affordable housing, community organizations, and neighborhood leaders, explored strategies including additional locations for center based care in the NW Bronx, the creation of a family day care provider network and more after school programs.

The need for more daycare in the NW Bronx neighborhoods is illustrated by statistics gathered in Community Board 7; more than 14,200 children on public assistance live in the area where only three ACD contracted child care centers exist. UNHP followed up on the neighborhood meeting by undertaking a phone survey of 88 family day care providers in 3 NWBronx zipcodes in order to access the status of their programs. UNHP obtained the list from the Department of Health for registered (licensed) family daycare providers. UNHP was able to reach 65 providers on the list. On April 20, 1998 UNHP sponsored a meeting for daycare providers. All of the providers who were surveyed and expressed interest were invited. Over 55 providers attended the meeting. They shared in common some of the following concerns:

The most surprising outcome of the meeting was that no more than a handful of providers were actually caring for children. Given that the NWBronx has a 99% unmet need for daycare (according to Community Needs assessment report for 1997) the lack of clients for local providers was a shock and highlighted the need to form a group with the goal of getting clients and improving their home-based businesses. The providers at the April 20th meeting expressed a commitment to childcare and an interest in organizing.

Since then they have continued to meet on a bi-weekly basis to develop goals and leadership for the group. There are now 37 members in the group. They have participated in a UNHP lead poisoning prevention training, created by-laws and a mission statement for the group, and planned a training schedule for the upcoming fall, including the American Red Cross infant CPR course. Other goals include registering members of the group with the Child and Adult Care Food Program (a UDA federal reimbursement food program designed for family day care providers), developing a marketing plan to recruit clients, working to remove the policy barriers that inhibit successful childcare programs, and creating a self employment development plan to increase their professional opportunities and expand daycare services for those needing daycare in our neighborhoods.

UNHP plans to continue assisting members of Proveedoras Unidas (Providers United) increase the economic viability of their small business, and at the same time expanding available daycare for families in the NWBronx.

If you have any question regarding the childcare issue, please contact Anania Almonte at (718) 733-2557 x21.

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