Assessing Child Care Needs

The economy is up and unemployment is down, but not everyone has been able to cash in.

Many welfare recipients find it difficult to get jobs, especially single mothers worrying who will take care of their children while they work.

That’s a familiar problem to many workers. But it’s new to those who are longtime welfare recipients. Now, welfare reform is pushing them toward jobs and the question of child care must be addressed.

Orange County is about to pick a consultant who will collect data from the county Social Services Agency and from providers of child care. The goal of the worthwhile undertaking is to find out what is needed in terms of child care and what’s available to low-income families.

Social workers say they do not expect a big change from the most recent survey of the need for subsidized child care, which was carried out in 1994. Still, the chance that changes may have occurred warrants another look at the situation. Also, the survey is mandated by last year’s state welfare reform legislation, which requires counties to look into child care availability every five years.

In 1994, the need for care for infants and children in low-income families was found to be especially severe in Santa Ana, Anaheim, Garden Grove and Huntington Beach. Today, more than 20,000 children are on a waiting list for subsidized child-care services. Another 20,000 might need such care when the welfare-to-work program requires them to find jobs.

The welfare reform passed by Congress limits the period in which people can receive welfare benefits to five years in a lifetime. That limit already has pushed some in Orange County off welfare, social workers said.

The Orange County Social Services Agency said it is trying to find jobs for welfare recipients or to get them job training. Providing child care will be one element in making welfare reform successful, which is why the planned county survey is so important.

Welfare workers have said they are enjoying helping clients find jobs more than they did simply dispensing checks. Taxpayers will get a break from the change as well. But, importantly, so will welfare recipients, who will have the satisfaction of earning a paycheck.