State Funds Allocated in Senate Bill : Culver City, Santa Monica Seek Day-Care Aid

Culver City and Santa Monica have submitted bids for a portion of the $16 million that the state Legislature has allocated for day-care facilities for school-age children.

The two Westside cities are among 1,000 cities and agencies in California that have applied for the funds, according to a spokesman for State Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), author of Senate Bill 303, which contains the allocation.

The money, which will be administered by the state Department of Education, will go toward before- and after-school care for children 6 to 13 years old.

The money is expected to provide day care for about 10,000 children in California and most of it will go toward care for low-income families whose children would be left alone while their parents work, according to Barbara Blakley, director of Santa Monica’s Child Care Centers.

She said any agency can apply for the money but that school districts are receiving priority.

She said Santa Monica has asked for about $60,000 to cover the cost of about 90 subsidized spaces. She said a needs assessment survey had shown that about 1,779 school-age children need day care in Santa Monica.

Terry Tyor, director of Culver City’s Children’s Center, said the city asked for about $39,000 to cover the costs of caring for 70 children. She said a needs assessment survey showed that the funds would meet about one-fourth of the need in Culver City.

The needs assessment surveys were required in Roberti’s legislation and were due Dec. 1. Agencies will learn in February whether they will receive any money, and the funds will be disbursed in March.

Many of the parents responding to the polls in the two cities said they do not earn enough to pay for child care. Tyor and Blakley said recipients of the state funds must mix subsidized day-care students with non-subsidized children.

Non-subsidized before-school day care is provided by the Culver City Unified School District at four elementary schools and before- and after-school care at one school. The cost for morning care is $1.25 a day. Afternoon care is $7 a day.

Subsidized day care is offered to 71 children at two sites in Culver City, she said.

Tyor said that if the city receives the state funds, the after-school program will be expanded to include children whose parents cannot afford to pay for day care.

Blakley said subsidized day care began in Santa Monica in 1943 and that in 1970, Santa Monica’s Child Care Center was recognized as a model program by the White House Conference on Youth and Children.

Beverly Hills did not apply for any of the state funds. However, the city does have two city day-care programs in operation. One, at La Cienega Park, for low-income families, accommodates 120 children. Families are charged on a sliding scale, depending upon ability to pay. This city-subsidized program began in 1970 at Horace Mann Elementary School, after a request was made by that school’s PTA.

Three Beverly Hills elementary schools also have child-care programs. These are open from school dismissal time to 6 p.m. Fees vary from $240 to $300 a month per child, depending upon how many hours the child is attending.

Beverly Hills’ child care services are for school-age children only.

According to the Senate Office of Research, between 600,000 and 800,000 so-called “latchkey” children in California are left alone each day while their parents are at work. Some reports place the number at more than 1 million.