Countywide

Trying to address an increasing need for day-care facilities, San Diego County supervisors decided Tuesday to study whether parents would use child-care centers if they were placed at transit centers.

Officials will examine transit centers in Oceanside and Chula Vista to see whether parents using public transportation would also drop children off at day-care centers there.

“One of the greatest difficulties for working parents in using public transportation is the difficulty in finding appropriate day-care facilities in close proximity to bus, trolley or rail lines,” said Supervisor John MacDonald.

In a unanimous vote, supervisors approved spending $15,000 from a state grant to study the feasibility of such day-care centers. The study, pending state approval, will take about three months, said Nancy Allen, MacDonald’s chief of staff. And if the survey indicates parents’ willingness to use day care at transit centers, the supervisors might consider launching pilot projects.

By 1995, nearly two-thirds of preschool children and three-fourths of all school-age children will have working mothers, according to a report presented to the supervisors.