[New York] Day care costs a struggle for families near poverty

from The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

Special state grant offers hope to some

James Goodman

(February 20, 2006) — Laura Bosh-Gonzalez has never won a lottery, but she is hoping to be a winner in one that could be held this June.

Being selected would not make her rich, but it would help her escape poverty.

That's because the lottery would divvy up a special $2.1 million state grant intended to help about 400 children whose parents make too much to qualify for Monroe County child care subsidies.

"I'm praying my name gets pulled," said Bosh-Gonzalez, 36, of Irondequoit, who makes about $21,800 a year as a receptionist.

Even with her parents working past retirement age to help, Bosh-Gonzalez is behind in her $170-a-week payments to keep her 2-year-old son, Nathan, at Wilson Commencement Park's Early Learning Center.

Bosh-Gonzalez's juggling act of trying to find adequate child care while working at a low-paying job is a predicament faced by many people and is now more pronounced since the financially strapped county limited the pool of potential applicants four years ago.

About 3,400 fewer children receive subsidies for child care today than at the outset of 2002.

The special grant that Bosh-Gonzalez has applied for — called Childcare DOLLAR$ for Working Families — will help about 550 more children get subsidies. Part of that total includes County Executive Maggie Brooks' recent small expansion of the eligibility pool.

Low-income families are often struggling with how to pay for child care. When Bosh-Gonzalez, for example, took a dental assistant job in 2003, she realized that she would qualify for a subsidy only if she asked to be paid $8 an hour instead of the $9 offered. However, that pay proved too low, so she eventually took a pay raise — and lost her subsidy.

Advocates say that the county should make the availability of subsidized child care more of a priority and that the current maximum for qualifying is too low. Under the rules for regular child care subsidies, a family can't make more than 150 percent of the poverty level to qualify, which would be $24,135 a year for a family of three.

"You are just putting more kids at risk," said Furnessa Mangrum, executive director of the Jefferson Avenue Childhood Development Center, one of the child care centers in the city.

Eligibility standards

County government, according to state regulations, must make subsidized child care available for public assistance recipients, with the county paying 25 percent of the cost and the state covering the rest. But the county has discretion in providing funds for the working poor not on public assistance. Those annual subsidies, which average $5,250, are typically paid for with the state block grant money that the county receives each year.

In 2002, then-County Executive Jack Doyle, facing deep budget shortfalls, changed the income-eligibility criteria for the working poor to qualify for a child care subsidy.

New applicants could not make more than 140 percent of the poverty level. Previously, the maximum had been 200 percent of the poverty level. That drove the number of children receiving subsidies in the county from 12,919 at the end of 2001 to 9,514 by the end of last year.

But since the county had built up a $2.7 million reserve in unspent child care funds, Brooks recently decided to raise the maximum that a family could make and still qualify for a subsidy to 150 percent of the poverty level.

That increase is expected to use $750,000 of this $2.7 million and provide subsidies for about 155 more children.

The county has used this surplus sparingly because the amount that the county gets in state funds can be difficult to predict, officials say.

"We need to be careful. We don't want to increase the number of people and find out that we have to take away their subsidies," said Joseph Martino, deputy social services commissioner.

Help for some

The $2.1 million special grant, secured by state Assemblywoman Susan John, D-Rochester, is an attempt to reach some of the families above the 150 percent cutoff. The grant will help about 400 children whose families make between 151 percent and 275 percent of the poverty level.

About 200 families have already contacted the Children's Institute, which is administering the grant and is taking applications. In June, if there are more than 400 children who would seem to qualify, a lottery will be held.

Even with the lottery, an untold number of parents will still be struggling to find child care, such as Mia Marbury, 27, of Rochester. She makes about $21,000 a year, working full time at a group home for people with disabilities.

But Marbury won't qualify for a subsidy because her husband, a full-time student at Monroe Community College, is not working. The county requires both members of a family not on public assistance to be employed 20 hours a week.

The same rules apply to the special grant. Despite its limited reach, the grant is still considered a step in the right direction.

And it could help residents such as Kari Wigent, 23, of Penfield. After more than a year of being able to afford only low-cost child care from providers who had her 3-year-old daughter, Brianna, spend much of her time watching TV, Wigent can now afford a structured program.

Wigent, who has a clerical job making about $24,000 a year, qualified for the Wegman Inner City Voucher Program, which pays for most of the tuition for the preschool/child care program at Corpus Christi School in Rochester.

But Wigent can't count on the grant for this summer and has applied for a piece of the special state grant.

"If I win the lottery, it would allow me to be out of debt," Wigent said. "It's now a constant struggle, and you want the best for your child."