Subsidized childcare needs on the rise
Advertiser Staff and News Services
As record numbers of low-income families leave welfare rolls and find jobs, the need for subsidized childcare has exploded.
In Hawai'i, the state paid $23.4 million in 1998 to subsidize childcare for 13,583 children. By 2001, that figure had grown to $36.6 million and the number of children benefiting from the subsidies had more than doubled to 31,881. At the same time, the number of families receiving temporary welfare assistance dropped from 16,836 to 12,887.
"I think our state is making every effort to support families as they go back to work," said Liz Chun of Good Beginnings Alliance, a nonprofit child advocacy organization that works with legislators in Hawai'i to make sure the needs of young children are being met.
Childcare has become more important than cash assistance for many nationwide in the six years since federal welfare rules changed.
As welfare programs emphasized work, record numbers of recipients found jobs, even if they paid little. But because single mothers with children under age 6 make up at least half of welfare rolls, that created a childcare problem. And as welfare rolls declined, states had extra money to spend on childcare.
By 2000, two-thirds of the states in the United States spent more of their federal welfare money on childcare than on cash assistance. The average monthly number of children receiving childcare subsidies grew from 1 million in 1996 to 1.8 million in 1999, according to the Center for Law and Social Policy, an advocacy group for low-income families.
But as state welfare rolls inch back up — a response to the poor economy — more money again is going to cash assistance, leaving less for childcare, transportation, job training and other support.
Further changes to welfare rules being considered in Washington could increase the need for childcare without providing the necessary money. And the budget problems most states are experiencing make it difficult for them to add cash on their own.
"I can't emphasize enough that we are hitting the wall as we speak," said Cindy Collier, director of policy, planning and communication for Indiana's Family and Social Services Administration.
As Congress prepares to update welfare before the law expires at the end of September, President Bush has proposed increasing job requirements for welfare recipients. Instead of working in jobs or job-related activities for 30 hours a week, recipients would have to work 40 hours a week. Activities that would qualify as work would be more restricted. And the requirements would apply to 70 percent of a state's welfare recipients, an increase from the 50 percent minimum currently.
"We've got to do more. We've got to make sure that the progress made is not undermined," Bush said recently. "One way to make sure that we continue to make progress is insist upon work, and then help people who need help to find a job, either through training and/or job placement."
The president does not want to increase money spent on welfare programs because he argues that fewer people on welfare need less money in total.
The Republican-led House has approved Bush's proposal, adding $1 billion extra for childcare for the next five years. That's a fraction of what Democrats estimate states need to put the tougher work requirements in place.
Mark Greenberg, a senior staff attorney with the Center for Law and Social Policy, has estimated that an additional $8 billion would be needed under Bush's plan. But even if the extra money is approved, Greenberg said it still doesn't make sense to increase welfare recipients' time in job-related activities. That only steps up the need for childcare — when so many families are already on waiting lists for childcare assistance — without doing anything to help welfare recipients get jobs.
Susan Delong, a Waialua parent, said childcare assistance has made it possible for her to get a job and stay off welfare.
"Without assistance, it would be pointless for me to work," Delong said. "I'd be spending out more than I'd be making."
Delong's 4-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, attends preschool at Kama'aina Kids in Mililani while Delong fills lens prescriptions at a Central O'ahu vision center. Elizabeth's full tuition payment would be $455 a month without assistance, half of the $910 Delong earns each month.
"You just can't afford it unless you make a whole, whole lot of money," Delong said. "And I don't."
Patricia Murakami, a state Department of Human Services administrator who oversees the state's childcare program, said that as welfare recipients were encouraged to return to work, childcare subsidy payments — most of which come from federal grants — increased.
Murakami said families making less than 75 percent of the median income in Hawai'i are eligible for some assistance.
For instance, a family of two working adults and one child younger than 13 would be eligible for childcare assistance if the family income was $3,069 per month or less, Murakami said.
If the child attended a fully accredited childcare program, such as the preschool Delong's daughter attends, the family would pay the child's tuition and the state would reimburse them for 80 percent of the bill.
Subsidies increase with lower family incomes. Families who chose unaccredited programs — a common choice among families with extended 'ohana nearby — are reimbursed at slightly lower levels, but are offered training in recognizing the qualities necessary in a good babysitter.
But there have been problems with subsidized childcare payments.
Payments are based on the previous month's childcare schedule, so that parents who are increasing their hours from part-time to full-time work come up short for a month or two while the system catches up.
And a new payment system that went into effect earlier this summer, designed to allow parents to access their childcare subsidies through automatic teller machines, hasn't been working.
When parents haven't been getting their subsidies and are forced to chose between paying the rent and paying the childcare provider, most chose the rent, said Elaine Mills of the Salvation Army's Leeward 'Ohana Keiki Preschool.
The childcare providers will eventually get their money, Murakami said. She said their patience will pay off: the kinks will be worked out, and the system should work better than ever.
"We're hoping to see good things from it," said Ray Sanborn, president of Kama'aina Kids.
Advertiser staff writer Karen Blakeman and Gannett News Service contributed to this report.
