California’s in the Pack 10 of States Ranked the Tops in Child Care

In the universe of child care, California is a star, according to Working Mother magazine.

In fact, California tops the list of the 10 best states for child care in Working Mother’s state-by-state survey, featured in the June issue of the New York-based magazine.

OK, so it’s an alphabetical list and the CA of California gives it listing rights over the CO of Colorado. But any port in a hurricane--and that’s exactly what working parents face these days in their daily struggle to put bread on the table and still get home in time to eat it with the kids.

Working Mother magazine has conducted an annual assessment of the state of child care for four years, but this is the first time it has looked in detail at each state’s performance and rated the quality, safety and availability of child care and the commitment to it, based on information provided by national and local authorities.

The magazine took this approach because Congress has turned over increasing power to the states in the past five years to set standards and decide what type of child care receives funding, said Judsen Culbreth, editor in chief of Working Mother.

It turns out that California is doing a lot of things right, earning 4 out of a possible top score of 5 in each category.

“There is a tremendous amount of variation among the states,” Culbreth said. “California has done a very good job in a number of areas.”

Quality of care

The magazine looked at the number of children one adult is allowed to care for, group size and caregiver training. In California, one adult can care for four infants or six toddlers or 12 preschoolers or 14 children, ages 6 and 7, or 28 school-age children, 8 years or older. There is no limit on group size at child-care centers. California child-care center directors must have 12 college credits to start plus management training, center staff must have 12 college credits to start. Family-care providers, who take care of children in the providers’ homes, are not required to be trained.

Safety

The state’s rating was based on the level of adult supervision (California was rated “good”), the size at which family-care homes are regulated (two or more children in California), whether immunizations are required in order to attend an out-of-home program (yes in California), whether special playground surfaces to cushion falls are required (yes for California centers but no for family-care homes), hand-washing standards (fair) and the inspection regulations (unannounced inspections once a year for centers, every 3 years for family-care homes).

Availability

Working Mother noted that California operates a large prekindergarten and school-age program and maintains a statewide resource and referral network. (For the nearest network member giving free child care referrals, call 1 [800] 543-7793.)

Commitment

The magazine summed up: “California continues to be a leader among the states in child care, increasing the number of youngsters served and working hard to upgrade quality.” The magazine pointed to $20 million in new funds for California’s preschool program this year; continued funding of the California Child Care Initiative Project, a public-private partnership that recruits and trains thousands of caregivers a year; and TrustLine, a state service that provides background checks on caregivers (1 [800] 822-8490).

There is always room for improvement. Only Colorado scored a 5, and only in the commitment category. The other states in the 10 best list are: Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

Working Mother urged readers to push for better child care in their states by contacting lawmakers and children’s advocacy groups.

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Parenting Conference: Working Mother magazine and the Los Angeles-based nonprofit Center for the Improvement of Child Caring are sponsoring a conference called “Careers & Kids, Balancing Work and Parenting Responsibilities” on Thursday and Friday at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in Universal City.

The conference is aimed at child-care consultants, educators, health-care professionals and community leaders, among others. It will feature workshops on such topics as parenting programs offered by corporations, telecommuting, developing programs for families of destructive adolescents and ethnic parenting.

On Friday morning, a “Parenting Program Faire” will highlight parent training programs. For more information, call: 1 (800) 325-2422.

Has your company developed an interesting way to help employees balance work life and family life? Write to Balancing Act, Los Angeles Times, Business News, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053. Or send e-mail to nancy.rivera.brooks@latimes.com