Area Needs More Licensed Child Care, Study Says

Ventura County faces a shortage of licensed child-care centers, making it difficult for working parents to find safe and affordable places to leave their children, according to a state-funded study released Tuesday.

The county ranks 35th among California’s 58 counties in child-care supply, with 97,110 children needing care and only 21,773 licensed child-care spots, the study said. That means only one out of every five children of working parents has a spot with a licensed provider in Ventura County.

Because of welfare reform and an economic boom throughout the state, more parents are returning to work. But many of those parents can’t find child care and are forced to leave their children with relatives or unlicensed care providers.

Others are not able to afford the child care they can find and must delay returning to work while they wait on lists for subsidized care. The average cost of full-time child care per year is $7,744, compared to a statewide cost of $6,549.

“It’s kind of staggering to see the statistics in Ventura County,” said Melissa Rivera, community outreach coordinator for Child Development Resources of Ventura County. “Child care is expensive, and finding that money to pay for quality child care is difficult for parents.”

In Ventura County, a family earning the state’s median income spends 16% of it to pay for child care for one child, a low-income family spends 26%, and a family making minimum wage would spend 65%.

The study was compiled by the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network, made up of 61 agencies throughout the state. The network provides referrals for child care, offers parents information on how to choose quality care and helps policymakers by gathering data and identifying areas of need.

Child-care advocates say the prohibitive costs of child care prevent some parents from getting off public assistance.

“In the wake of welfare reform, the issue of child care has been brought to light,” Rivera said. “Policymakers are realizing that child care needs to be at the forefront. How are we going to get parents back to work and stable without child care? The two go hand in hand.”

There are subsidies available for low-income parents, but not nearly enough, officials said. There are nearly 1,000 eligible families in Ventura County that are on waiting lists for subsidies.

Stacey Brown of Ventura put his 7-month-old son, Isaiah, on a waiting list about two months ago. While Brown works for the Gap clothing chain, Isaiah stays with his mom. But Brown also leaves Isaiah with his grandparents and aunt. Brown said he’s worried about finding a child-care center he can trust.

“I’m anxious to get the wait over with,” said Brown, 23. “Now I’m just keeping my fingers crossed and hoping I’ll be one of the lucky ones.”

The needs are greatest for parents who have infants, work odd hours or don’t have any means of transportation.

For their part, Ventura County child-care centers struggle to find qualified workers willing to work for the state average of $16,140 a year. Officials say child-care providers are leaving to find higher-paying jobs. A preschool teacher in the county makes $20,090 on average, and a first-year schoolteacher makes $23,835.

“It’s a really big challenge,” said Sherri Laboon, director of City Center Roots and Wings in Thousand Oaks. “There’s a critical shortage of early childhood educators because the pay is low and the stress is high. So we’re forced into hiring teachers who have little or no experience.”

Child-care advocates are optimistic, however, about the quality of care. They say more child-care providers are attending workshops on child development and on serving the county’s Spanish-speaking community.