UPDATE, December 15, 2011: Governor Jerry Brown said he anticipates 7,500 children will lose subsidized child care in the new round of mid-year budget cuts starting in January, reports Kevin Yamamura and Diana Lambert of the Sacramento Bee.
Finding affordable, accessible childcare is more difficult for families this year, according to the 2011 California Childcare Portfolio, released on December 13th by the California Child Care Resource & Referral Network.
Many small family child care providers are going out of business due to the worsening economy and big cuts in childcare subsidies, leading to a decline in the number of licensed child care providers.
Some sobering facts from the portfolio:
The declining numbers mean supply for falls far short of the demand: licensed care in California is available for only 25% of children with parents in the labor force--without access to child care, parents are struggling to maintain stable jobs.
Across the state, there was a 7% decrease in slots at child care centers and a 5% decrease for home-based providers; 40 counties (69%) saw significant numbers of licensed family child care homes close.
For a low-income family earning minimum wage, the cost of housing and child care for one preschooler in a center-based program can exceed their annual income by as much as 28%; 187,516 children are on the wait list to receive childcare subsidies.
From the press release:
Reflecting on the challenges ahead, Patty Siegel, above, retiring Executive Director of the California Child Care Resource & Referral Network observed “Already this year child care programs lost a total of $300 million, impacting almost 32,000 children. That loss, coupled with the sobering data from this report and the looming trigger cuts are a chilling end of year message for child care
providers and the families they serve. Sadly, it’s these very services that lift low-income families
out of poverty that are now most threatened.”
The 2011 Portfolio is the 8th in a biennial series of statewide and county-by-county reports
documenting licensed child care supply and demand in California. The data was collected in
2010 from local child care resource and referral programs and prepared by the California Child
Care Resource & Referral Network, a statewide organization. The 61 locally-based, state-funded
child care resource and referral programs work to improve the quality, availability, and
affordability of child care in local communities throughout the state.
Written for California's Children by Elizabeth J Carlyle.
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