Group to Outline Plan to Improve County Child Care

Responding to a shortage of quality child care in Ventura County, a community group has created a five-year plan to improve services and make them more affordable and accessible to families.

The Child Care Planning Council of Ventura County will present its plan to county supervisors today, and leaders hope the board will take the lead in committing resources to help put it into practice.

“We need stakeholders in this from local government, from business and from education,” said Patty McWaters, vice chairwoman of the council. “We want this plan to have life breathed into it and to stay alive. We don’t want it to sit on a shelf.”

The council, created by the Board of Supervisors and the county superintendent of schools, is made up of providers, parents and representatives from local community agencies.

The plan outlines 22 objectives, including providing professional development to providers, creating a substitute caregiver registry and expanding the number of child-care facilities. The council has already started on two objectives--streamlining the permit process and offering stipends of $500 for child-care providers who meet specific goals.

McWaters said the plan, called “Uniting Voices for Child Care,” is a blueprint for closing the gap between the availability of child care and the needs of Ventura County families.

There are spaces for fewer than one-third of the children under age 14 who need care in the county, according to a 1999 study by the council. The study reported that there are 96,810 children who need care and only 29,687 slots at licensed centers.

“The need is dire now,” said Carrie Rothstein-Fisch, a psychology professor at Cal State Northridge who helped develop the plan. “The need is especially clear in recruiting and maintaining quality child-care staff.”

Sherri Laboon, director of Roots and Wings City Child Care Center, said staffing at her Thousand Oaks center is a constant challenge because of the low wages and difficult working conditions. “We are facing some critical problems, namely being able to maintain a stable work force,” she said.

The plan was developed in response to a state mandate that required counties to identify gaps in their child-care services and to develop a strategy to meet existing needs.

During the last year, more than 100 parents, child-care providers and county leaders reviewed the identified needs, held a community forum and developed goals and objectives to address them.

It’s estimated the plan would cost as much as $8 million to implement, and the council is counting on financial support from community, government and business leaders, McWaters said.

County Supt. of Schools Chuck Weis said this is an ideal time to improve and strengthen child care, with money from the Proposition 10 cigarette tax available for children’s programs. Weis said quality child care and preschool programs better prepare children for school.

“The research is clear,” he said. “A modest investment in children at that age will pay off sevenfold in their lives.”

Today’s presentation is the first of several the council plans to make to city and business leaders within the next few months. The council also intends to distribute its report to child-care providers, schools, parents, business owners, community agencies and local government leaders.

The group encourages parents to continue voicing their needs, businesses to invest financially in child care, and politicians to support legislation and to offer incentives to businesses and child-care providers.

Supervisor Kathy Long commended the council for its work, and said the entire community needs to help make the plan work. Long said the county is already committed to providing quality child care, and will continue to support those efforts.

“If we don’t provide that safe, secure environment for our children,” Long said, “we will see it at the other end of the spectrum in our juvenile justice center.”