COUNTYWIDE : Forums to Focus on County Child Care

The county’s Board of Supervisors and superintendent of schools will sponsor public forums Tuesday and Thursday to address child-care needs.

The forums represent a step toward allocating a $7-million windfall in federal child-care money, which will become available in September.

“It’s a great opportunity for people to come to us and share their concerns and ideas about what is needed,” said Nancy Claxton, forum moderator. “We want to hear from parents.”

With 8% of the state’s children but just 3% of available state money, Orange County ranks third in need for child-care money, behind Fresno and San Bernardino counties, Claxton said. More than 20,000 children are on waiting lists for subsidized child care in the county.

“With the growth of this county and the change in demographics, there is a real acknowledgment that this county really has a need,” said Claxton, a child development program administrator for the county Department of Education.

The new money was appropriated last year to help low-income families pay for child care. The money will be channeled through the state, which is receiving $76.3 million in child care and development block grant money.

Officials will also create an Orange County Child Care and Development Planning Council. The panel, expected to be appointed Aug. 6, will use both oral and written testimony from the forums to create an interim child-care plan and a more comprehensive five-year proposal for the county.

The plan will outline where subsidized child care is needed, the ages of the neediest children, special care problems and improvements needed in the quality of care.

Last month, the Board of Supervisors appointed an interim committee of child-care advocates to draft a preliminary plan to be considered by the council. So far, the committee has focused on gathering statistics and increasing the availability of alternate payment programs and licensed family day-care homes, Claxton said.

She said the panel targeted some areas for improvement: infant/toddler care; summer latchkey care; subsidized funding for preschool children and community college campuses; programs for teen-age parents, and salary and benefit packages for child-care workers.

Other members of the program include Nancy Noble, Irvine’s child-care coordinator; Mary E. Nolan, director of Irvine’s Child Care Project; Tina Peltzer, president of the Orange County Child Care Assn.; Lisa Velarde, director of child care services for the Children’s Home Society of California; Dianne Edwards, director of adult and employment services for the county’s Social Services Agency, and Betsy Mathis, community resource planning consultant.

The first forum will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday in the county Department of Education board room at 200 Kalmus Drive, Costa Mesa. Claxton will moderate.

A representative of the Social Services Agency will moderate the next forum from 3 to 5 p.m. Thursday at the supervisors’ hearing room on the first floor of the Hall of Administration, 10 Civic Center Plaza, in Santa Ana.

Oral testimony should be limited to five minutes. Written testimony may be brought to the forums or will be accepted up to 5 p.m. Friday. It should be sent to Dianne Edwards, Social Services Agency, 1055 N. Main St., Suite 600, Santa Ana 92701.