New Day-Care Center Opens Door to Disabled

As children dug plastic shovels into the front lawn of the First Christian Church of Reseda in a mock ground-breaking ceremony for The Rainbow Early Learning Center, supporters of the project looked on with glee.

After three years of legal snares and red tape, Nancy Finney and Cordy Ortiz, co-owners and co-directors of the center, have developed a day-care training center that will offer classes to infants, preschoolers and disabled children.

Disabled pupils will constitute 20% of the enrollment at the facility, the only one in the San Fernando Valley area catering to such a variety of children, said Marjorie Morris, executive director of the Child Care Resource Center in the Valley.

Diane Perry, whose 2 1/2-year-old son, Clayton, requires a breathing tube and has a partial hearing loss, is relieved at having found a learning center where the boy can mingle with children who are not disabled.

“At this point, we’ve determined that my son’s handicap is only physical . . . he’s a bright child,” Perry said. “Most centers that provide for his physical handicap don’t consider his intelligence or the need to help him develop it. Here he can be around all types of children . . . here he has a chance.”

Her other experiences with day-care centers, Perry said, have been expensive and disappointing.

Sunday School Classrooms

The Rainbow Early Learning Center will be housed in Sunday school classrooms at the First Christian Church of Reseda. To meet state and federal regulations, the rooms will be renovated and equipped with facilities for the disabled, and a playground will be built, Finney said. The modifications are expected to cost about $35,000.

Although the center is a private institution, Ortiz said it will not be an “exclusive, country-club type day-care center that caters only to the wealthy.”

“We’ve checked around and our prices are about average,” she said. “But we hope in the future to establish some type of program with the Child Care Resource Center or perhaps give scholarships for lower-income families.” Monthly rates range from $120 to $325, depending on the child’s age and the hours of care.

Anne Michelena, who gave up her job to stay home when her son, Kevin, was born, said the center may allow her to resume her career.

“Until now, I could never find a good, affordable center for him,” Michelena said. “I may go back to work now.”

Finney said insurance costs, estimated at $15,000 annually, have been a major stumbling block. She said having a staff of 12 certified teachers with first-aid skills including cardiopulmonary resuscitation lowered the cost somewhat.

The center was funded from “our own pockets and loans and investments from supportive private sources,” Ortiz said.

“My main goal is to contribute to the welfare of the children, because touching their lives means shaping the future,” Ortiz said. “I’m certainly not making money. . . . I’m doing this for the kids.”