
{"id":22631,"date":"2011-12-29T10:39:48","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T15:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=22631"},"modified":"2011-12-29T10:39:48","modified_gmt":"2011-12-29T15:39:48","slug":"budget-cuts-take-toll-on-child-care-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/12\/29\/budget-cuts-take-toll-on-child-care-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget cuts take toll on child-care services"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Susan Dickson<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><br \/>\n<em>This story is the fourth in a series about the real and potential effects to Orange County residents of state budget cuts. This week, we look at childcare and early childhood education. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>As director of the Orange County Department of Social Services, Nancy Coston has a lot of experience working within her means, bringing much-needed services to local families. In the present economic climate, every dollar counts, especially in the realm of social services. But in considering the impacts of widespread budget cuts, child care is the first thing Coston mentions. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153For the last two years, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve received a significant decrease in the child-care subsidy fund,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which provides funds for child care for families who couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t otherwise afford it, she said. This year, Orange County received $4.1 million for child-care subsidies, down from a recent high of $4.9 million, meaning that there are nearly 650 children in Orange County who qualify for the child-care subsidy who can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get it. <\/p>\n<p>So what do families do? <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some are hanging on with family members and so forth,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Coston said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some are paying what they can. Some are losing their jobs.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>But without the money, Coston\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hands are tied. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When we knew the cuts were coming, we stopped taking people into the program,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. But, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Orange DSS did not stop serving anyone who was already getting child care.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>So families are placed on a waiting list, with certain groups \u00e2\u20ac\u201c like children in protective services or those with adolescent parents \u00e2\u20ac\u201c given priority. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It became increasingly difficult for us even to serve our priority groups when the money started drying up,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Coston said. Luckily, the county provided some funding in its 2011-12 budget to help DSS serve those groups. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying to piece together what we can for our priority groups, but the picture is quite bleak for working families,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Coston said, citing some families who have been waiting for child care for 18 months or longer. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Child care is very expensive,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she added. <\/p>\n<p>The cuts have also impacted child-care providers, since Coston can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t guarantee them a set number of children anymore. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Major cuts<\/strong><br \/>\nDSS works with organizations like the Orange County Partnership for Young Children to provide services to residents who need them. The partnership matches children with child-care providers and pre-kindergarten placements, administering the county\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Smart Start allocation and a portion of its pre-kindergarten dollars. Smart Start is an initiative started by Gov. Jim Hunt that provides comprehensive early-childhood programs in health and education. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Over the past three years, basically since the recession started, Smart Start has received a budget cut,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Margaret Samuels, executive director of the partnership. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been really awful in the past few years watching the budget shrink and shrink, because it does have an impact.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>In this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s state budget, cuts to Smart Start and the North Carolina Pre-Kindergarten program \u00e2\u20ac\u201c formerly known as More at Four \u00e2\u20ac\u201c totaled 20 percent, Samuels said. Different school districts across the state treat pre-k in different ways; in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, some pre-k students are served within the public schools while other slots are available in private schools. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That has affected our community significantly,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Samuels said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It means less money for child-care payments, subsidy payments.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It also means we got reduced slots for the N.C. Pre-K,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she added. <\/p>\n<p>The partnership also administers a number of programs associated with Smart Start, like a special services coordination program in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools that helps identify children with special needs, but that program was cut this year because of budget reductions. <\/p>\n<p>The county has helped out with some programs though, like an early-childhood dental project that the county health department started funding when the partnership was no longer able to do so. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We worked really hard to work with the county this year because we were really worried about some of these programs,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Samuels said, adding that both the Orange County Board of Commissioners and county staff have been very supportive. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Counties have limited funds as well. The mess is kind of all over,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really difficult because so many of our programs \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 were showing real outcomes for children and their families.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Samuels said the partnership has cut its budget pretty much to the basics at this point, and that she worries about future cuts.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are going to be watching the outlook very closely,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our eternal hope is that everyone recognizes the benefit of early-childhood [programs] and that the more funds we put in early childhood, the less issues we have down the road.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As director of the Orange County Department of Social Services, Nancy Coston has a lot of experience working within her means, bringing much-needed services to local families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22631"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22632,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22631\/revisions\/22632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}