Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 1, 1990 TAG: 9005310313
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KIM SUNDERLAND NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Long
A county survey indicates that the largest needs are affordable child care for middle- to low-income families with more open slots for infants and preschoolers.
With the area's licensed facilities at or near capacity, it's critical that these needs are met with other alternatives.
There are a total of 924 spaces currently being filled in the county, but 8,111 children aged 13 and under are said to need child care, according to a 1990 school census report by the Virginia Department of Education.
"If we can get home care providers trained and agency-approved, more of them will help solve money and availability problems," said Judy Arrington, the social worker with the Montgomery County Department of Social Services who is handling child care.
Some home-care providers are responding to the problem.
Deborah Craig, for example, has obtained certification as a home-care provider from the social services department, which now refers children to her.
She charges $40 a week per child for all day and $20 per week for a child who needs before- and after-school care. That's less than the average $55-$85 weekly charge at local child care centers.
Craig does not want to watch more than the six children she has - it would defeat her purpose of individualized care. But, nonetheless, she said she almost feels guilty.
"I have people calling me every day seeking care for their children," Craig said. "I can't take any more children. More providers are desperately needed."
Craig and other child-care specialists think home-based care can relieve a lot of pressure in the county.
For instance, it would help in the Riner and Bellview elementary school districts where there are no centers to provide before- and after-school care, Arrington said.
"We've targeted recruiting to those areas," Arrington said. "We've decided, `Let's make home providers better to help these people.' We want to get them licensed or local agency approved."
When Arrington says "we," she's referring to organizations that are trying to solve that dilemma. One is the Virginia Tech Resource and Referral Service.
The service is paid for by Tech and works with social services and the Roanoke Valley Council of Community Services to help parents find child care here.
The goals of the service are to help families find child care, to increase and improve the care offered here and to be a support system for parents.
"We need something to be done here," said Ann Francis, director of the service. "Chains, like Kindercare and Gerber, aren't going to come here because they can't charge enough to operate. And who could afford them if they did?"
Helping the home-care givers become professionals is also a goal of the service, which offers the Child Care Provider Training Series.
The free monthly seminars discuss such topics as forming a family day-care association, how to handle taxes, insurance and records, helping children feel good about themselves, and keeping them safe and healthy.
Arrington believes the seminars help solve problems that the home-care providers may be experiencing, lends them support and gives them training.
Another group trying to ease child-care problems and help care-givers become licensed is the New River Valley Children's Provider Committee.
As an extension of the Virginia Department of Social Services Division of Licensing, the committee was formed in 1989 to help foster better relations and communication between licensing specialists and child-care providers.
One of the purposes is to provide regular in-service training and workshops to day care providers.
These efforts were set back when the state recently decided to allow the Aid to Dependent Children program - which had contracted only with licensed centers - to begin paying for unregulated day care for women on welfare who are attending school.
"This is extremely distressing," said Arrington. "Sure parents should have choices, but not for unregulated centers. It's really a step back."
Finally, another alternative to solve the county's child-care problems has been taken by other child-care specialists who plan simply to build more facilities.
Donna Thornton, owner of Tiny Tots Day Care Center in Christiansburg, and Carolyn Quinn are owners of Child Care Consultant Services, whose work includes consultation in the development of new centers and matching child-care providers with building site developers.
They are currently working on a number of projects with local industries and developers to build more centers, with two new centers planned for Blacksburg.
"We're trying to meet the needs in private industries," said Thornton. "And in the process we're educating corporate America on the good benefits this offers to their employees."
Corporate-sponsored child care in the county doesn't have a great track record.
In 1988, one such center existed at Montgomery Regional Hospital, but failed because of a lack of interest, said Robert D. Fraraccio, hospital administrator.
"The center was opened for our employees, but they didn't use it," he said. "So we opened it up to the public."
However, the public did not utilize it as much as was hoped and it was closed.
"It was an expensive program and it didn't pay for itself," Fraraccio said. "We would consider doing it again if the demand were there."
The demand exists, according to Thornton and Quinn, whose two new centers are being developed with child-care providers and local developers like Price Realty Development.
One new center, called University Building Block, will be located on University Boulevard while the other, called Southpark Professional Child Care Center, will be on South Main Street.
Thornton said approximately 270 more children will be served.
Another new center is being planned in the county by Carolyn B. Jennelle, owner of Tomorrow's World child care center.
She, too, is working with a developer to expand her business in the county, hoping to have the new center operating within a year.
Said Jennelle, "I really feel that the solution is new centers."
by CNB