ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 16, 1996 TAG: 9601160042
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: GENERAL ASSEMBLY NOTEBOOK
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, D-Roanoke, wants iron-clad assurances that Virginia's working poor won't have to pay for all-day Head Start services.
He is proposing a budget amendment that would, by law, prohibit the state Department of Social Services from charging fees to Head Start families who fall below the federal poverty level.
On advice of the attorney general's office, the department last month dropped plans to charge families - who rely on all-day Head Start programs for child care while they work or go to school -10 percent of their gross income to help cover the cost.
But the fee reprieve was only for the current federal fiscal year. The fee could be reinstituted Oct. 1, the beginning of the next fiscal year.
Woodrum said Monday that he wanted to ensure that that not happen.
His amendment would require legislative action. He said he doesn't expect "any dramatic starbursts on this one."
"It seems so right that I don't think there will be any great struggle," he said. "I know of no one who's raised any questions about it."
Statewide, a majority of families who have children enrolled in all-day Head Start programs would have had to pay, according to a state survey. Fewer than 5 percent of families who receive all-day Head Start services live above the federal poverty level - $1,263 monthly for a family of four.
The 10 percent payment has been a source of controversy since October, when families were notified that they would have to pay for a service they had received at no cost.
Last summer, Gov. George Allen shifted the management of federal child-development block-grant funds - most of them used to subsidize all-day Head Start services - from the Virginia Council on Child Day Care and Early Childhood Programs to the Department of Social Services. The council contracts with the department to administer the funds.
That put the funding under new guidelines requiring parents to pay 10 percent of their gross income.
Head Start is a federal program for preschool children from low-income families. The children are those identified as being at-risk for school failure.
LENGTH: Short : 48 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB