Child-Care Policy Adopted

The City Council on Monday unanimously adopted a child-care policy with the goal of ensuring “quality, affordable care for children of all ages.”

To solve an “infant-care crisis” in Monterey Park, the policy suggests that the city promote parental leave, flexible work hours and job sharing in the private and public sectors. The city itself will “work to become a model employer” regarding child care for its employees.

The policy was drafted by the city’s Child Care Task Force, which the council created last year.

The policy recommends that the city support state and federal legislation to make child care more readily available, eliminate city regulations that may adversely affect child-care facilities and encourage a “team effort” among schools, city agencies and community groups to care for school-age children.