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Child-Care Providers Fear Loss of Income Under Rule Change

Posted on: Wednesday, 27 July 2005, 18:00 CDT

Jul. 27--COLUMBUS -- Child-care providers yesterday fought proposed changes in their state subsidies, arguing that bureaucrats ignored the intent of lawmakers who added higher rates to the state budget.

The rates, later vetoed by Gov. Bob Taft, would have been the first increases in four years for providers of care for children in low-income families.

New general child-care rules, which would pay child-care providers a flat rate instead of an hourly fee, remain on the table for possible approval by the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review.

Deborah Carson, a Toledo child-care provider and temporary president of a new American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees chapter for providers in Lucas County, said she could lose up to $3,000 a year. She cares for five children in her home.

"With the work schedules that the parents have, they can't spend quality time with their kids," she said. "They're off to work at 7. No lunch. No breaks. And then right from work to school.

"So it's up to day-care providers to provide all those intermediate things that the parents lack," she said. "The only time they have to spend quality time with the kids is on weekends."

Some providers object to the state's decision to eliminate the authority of counties to negotiate hourly rates and to set flat regional rates for part-time care, between eight to 24 hours a week, and full-time care, between 25 and 50 hours a week.

Hourly rates could be charged only for care provided for less than seven hours or more than 50.

"We're looking at standardizing the rates," said Dennis Evans, spokesman for the Department of Job and Family Services. "Up until now, rates have been negotiated by counties. It's varied as to what people were being paid."

He said the overall budget for child care climbed and that more families became eligible for state subsidies when the governor and lawmakers agreed to raise the income eligibility level from 150 percent to 185 percent of the federal poverty level.

The new rules would guarantee that no provider would receive less than 65 percent of the rates being charged in the child-care market, based on a study by Ohio State University.

But in some cases providers fare better under the current system when counties negotiate hourly rates. They also would lose co-payments that they could previously charge low-income families.

Opponents of the new rules before the Department of Job and Family Services were partly successful. The department has decided to pull proposed rules associated with the Early Learning Initiative, the latest incarnation of Head Start, from the agenda of tomorrow's Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review.

State Sen. Joy Padgett (R., Coshocton) said department personnel who drafted the rules missed the intent of lawmakers when they put higher rates in the budget. She said Mr. Taft objected to setting the rates in statute, not to the level of those rates.

"These are not bad people, but these are people who are sitting in an office," she said. "I'm sure they have their child care completely taken care of. They don't face the issues that families in poverty face."

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Source: The Blade

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