Tiffany Patterson: Budget cuts hit hard

State Budget Cuts Affect Richmond District Families
On Aug. 31, the newly-signed state budget eliminated the extended day care (latchkey) program. This decision canceled full-day, full-year child care for 13,000 low-income children, and since most of their parents are working, it may threaten the jobs of some 6,000 workers in a down economy.

Half of the affected families reside in San Francisco, and have been under the care of three San Francisco YMCA branches - Mission, Stonestown and Richmond District YMCAs.

The YMCA fought hard to keep this funding, but since the decision, the Y has been trying desperately to locate additional funding and/or other child care options for these families.

In the Richmond District, 25 families have been impacted. The Richmond Y has been able to secure funding for all families until December 2009, but after this date, it may be forced to serve less of these families or possibly none due to lack of funding. Given that all free or low-cost child care alternatives in the Richmond District are currently full, this reality could prove harsh to these families.

The YMCA is currently raising funds to subsidize these families for the rest of the school year, and looking for funding to aid families in future years if the state continues to neglect low-income families' child care needs. If you would like to help this fundraising effort, please contact me at (415) 666-9601 or by e-mail at tpatterson@ymcasf.org.

More Information on Latchkey Funding
Full-day child care programs were nicknamed "latchkey" because many parents with no one to watch their school-age children after school told them to go directly home and lock the door to be safe until they came home from work.

Latchkey serves children of both subsidized and non-subsidized fee paying families. Without child care, many of these parents will be forced to give up their jobs in order to ensure that their children are safe and supervised before and after school, and on non-school days. Parents being taken out of the work force to care for their children will only add to the unemployment rate and decrease tax revenue to California. Child neglect and abuse may dramatically increase since many children could be left unsupervised when parents have to work and are left with no child-care alternatives.

The assumption is that most of the latchkey children could be absorbed into other programs, especially the After School Education and Safety Program (ASES) or the federally funded 21st Century Programs.

Actually, ASES and latchkey serve two different purposes. Very few of these children will be able to move to ASES programs because many, possibly most, schools served by latchkey programs do not have ASES programs. Additionally, most ASES programs operate only on school days, and only after-school (latchkey serves working parents who need care on all the days that school is closed, before school and when kindergarten lets out), and most ASES programs are filled and cannot serve additional children.Ê

Neither ASES nor the 21st Century Programs were designed to meet a child care need for children of working parents. This is due to the fact that, unlike latchkey, the overwhelming majority of ASES and the 21st Century Programs are only open during the 180 days that make up the school year. The programs do not provide child care during school holidays or summer breaks.

On the other hand, the latchkey program is open during school holidays and summer breaks, offering working parents of school-aged children a reliable source of child care year-round.

The few ASES and 21st Century Programs that do have summer funding are only funded for three to five hours a day, rather than all day as needed by working parents. Many ASES and 21st Century Programs are not open before school, even on school days.

In addition, latchkey programs are more widely accessible to working parents of school-aged children than either the ASES or the 21st Century Programs. The ASES and 21st Century Programs do not exist on the majority of school campuses. Most ASES and 21st Century Programs have been limited to Title 1 schools, and there are many Title 1 schools that do not have these programs.

Finally, because of cutbacks, some school districts have terminated or lost their 21st Century Programs funds so there will be no slots for any part of the day for any school-age children.Ê

Tiffany Patterson is the director of the Richmond District YMCA.