A LOOK AHEAD * Because of bureaucratic missteps, many L.A. County welfare recipients are having a difficult time joining the work force, as they are . . .Falling Through the Cracks in New Child-Care System

A new system of delivering child-care services to welfare recipients in Los Angeles County is off to a rocky start and is forcing many women to turn down jobs or shoulder child-care costs on their own.

That was the consensus of views expressed in interviews with public officials, child-care providers, mothers and advocates for women seeking care.

Providing subsidized child care to women on public assistance is a linchpin of welfare reform. For many policymakers it is the key to allowing mothers to move from dependency to work.

New rules established under California’s CalWORKS welfare program were supposed to eliminate paperwork and the need to apply for help to a number of state and local agencies.

But implementation of the new program in Los Angeles County has been fraught with problems and confusion. One of the most serious upshots has been the return of nearly $2 million in badly needed funds for child-care services to the state because the county lacked an adequate system to release the money to families.

County officials concede there have been problems but attribute most of them to the immensity of the caseload. Numbering more than 700,000 people, the caseload is larger than that of any state except California and New York.

Child-care advocates and providers, however, contend that many of the problems should have been foreseen.

“The thing that’s very disturbing is why aren’t some of the things being anticipated and what do women have to go through to get the child care they need?” said Susan Fogel of the California Women’s Law Center. “I know both sides are working very hard but it’s frustrating to see how slow it’s going. There needs to be some interim plan for how to deal with people.”

Under CalWORKS, all women who receive public assistance qualify for subsidized child care so they can take part in work, training and approved education programs.

Child-care advocates and providers list an array of complaints about the system in Los Angeles County, including:

* Apparent confusion among many caseworkers over child-care rules and requirements.

* Bureaucratic snarls that have hampered communication among government welfare agencies and nonprofit and private child-care providers.

* The county’s slow pace in enrolling welfare recipients in GAIN (Greater Avenues for Independence), its welfare-to-work program.

* Inadequate planning to expedite child-care services for women who find jobs on their own.

* Delays in processing child-care applications, forcing some providers to wait months for reimbursements.

The result, say advocates, is that hundreds and perhaps thousands of women who want and need subsidized child care are not getting it.

Denise Hall said she has been trying to get subsidized care for her 20-month-old daughter Kiana for eight months with little success.

Hall, 32, said repeated calls to county caseworkers have yielded conflicting information. She says one worker told her she needed to have a relative or friend take care of her child. She has no relatives in the area.

Another told her she could get child care only if she were pursuing a high school equivalency diploma, she said. She already has her GED, as well as a certificate as a medical assistant.

She has tried to enroll in the GAIN program because she says she was told GAIN participants received priority for child-care services. However, she has not gotten a response to her request.

Hall said she is particularly frustrated because she wants to work and has had job interviews lined up. But she has been stymied because she could not find someone to care for her child.

“The attitude is that everybody likes to be on welfare, that they’re lazy, but I don’t want to be on it, I want to work but I’m getting no help from the county,” she said.

Pushing for Remedies

Hall was speaking from the home of Pam Frederick, a child-care provider in South-Central Los Angeles who has made the plight of women like Hall a cause.

Frederick said she has encountered dozens of women who are falling through the cracks. Many are in education programs, she said, and are being told they must find child care on their own.

She finally posted a memo on a bulletin board at Southwest College offering free care for eligible women, hoping at some point she will be reimbursed. So far, she has taken in four children whose mothers are unable to pay for their care.

“I feel so sorry for these women,” she said. “They know they have to do something but they aren’t getting the help they need. Many of the caseworkers don’t have a clue. They don’t want to do the work.”

County officials counter that workers have been overwhelmed with program changes that have admittedly slowed the process.

One change occurred in July when the county began paying child-care subsidies directly to providers rather than to parents. The new procedure slowed the process by compelling changes in verifying the status of recipients, processing paperwork and authorizing payments.

Under another change, most child-care services are now funneled through 10 resource and referral agencies with jurisdiction in different areas of the county. This was done to make the process more efficient, but implementing it has tended to slow things down.

In addition to these changes, the county is under the gun to enroll nearly 147,000 recipients in its welfare-to-work program, GAIN, by year’s end. These recipients are subject to welfare legislation that requires them to find work within two years. So far, about 62,500 recipients have enrolled in the program.

“We have heard that there are concerns about getting child care to parents and providers but we do have procedures set up so that if someone requests child care there is someone there to help them,” said Pearlene Saffold, a child-care program deputy at the Department of Public Social Services. “We are reiterating to staff that this absolutely must occur.”

Delays in Transferring Cases

Saffold also acknowledged that there were problems in transferring most child-care cases to private agencies which, in turn, find child care for families. Delays in the transfers may have resulted in lost funding.

Allen Kennett, executive director of Equipoise in Compton, said his agency was forced to give up $904,000 in funding for the 1997-98 fiscal year.

Another agency, Los Angeles-based Child and Family Services, gave back $681,395 of a $967,141 contract. The Child-Care Resource Center of Van Nuys also returned money to the state, according to the county. Its directors could not be reached for comment.

There were many problems, Kennett said. The six-month contract was to have begun in January, but his agency did not get the funding until March, he said. Then, agreements had to be made with the county to reach recipients. And Kennett said he found there were no safeguards to prevent recipients from double-dipping.

For an agency with a waiting list for its programs, it was a grim chore to have to turn away funding.

“Currently, it is often a nightmare because we’re in the middle of transition,” Kennett said. “The county and the agencies are working very hard but it’s not an easy task.”

Kennett said he believes that 95% of the problems have been worked out.

State officials said they are monitoring Los Angeles County’s child-care problems. Bruce Wagstaff, deputy director for welfare programs at the California Department of Social Services, said he knows of no other counties that returned child-care funding.

The department spent $364 million last year for services that provided care for 91,000 children. About $80 million of the money came to Los Angeles County. The year’s expenditures will top $1.56 billion and are expected to benefit 248,000 children. Los Angeles County’s portion has not been determined.

Wagstaff said problems in a county as big as Los Angeles are not unexpected.

“I am confident that in the long run they will get these issues worked out,” he said.

But he added: “My understanding is that this has not caused a huge problem. But child care is a huge part of CalWORKS. That was what this thing was all about.”