FORGOTTEN CHILDREN

Saturday, June 29, the State Day Care Advisory Committee held the last of a series of 6 hearings around the state. Approximately sixty people attended the Cleveland hearings to observe and give testimony. Although the majority were women, some male politicians, ministers, reporters and daddies attended. The committee will prepare a report for publication and for the State Director of Public Welfare, Mr. Bates, to use in preparing state child care programs and legislation.

Ms. Ruth Thompson, committee chairperson, gave a brief introduction and began calling people forward to testify.

TESTIMONY

Women describing different situations had many of the same problems-not enough money, not enough space, administrative neglect and confusion about overlapping and seemingly contradictory state and local laws, federal and welfare regulations.

While costs are rising, funding is drying up or long gone and women's wages are right where they were a decade ago. Ms. Lescher,

operator of the "Kiddie Tot Day Nursery" at É. 125th and St. Clair, described the renovating she had to do to meet fire and building standards. Ms. Joan Congrin of Portage County has operated a center in her home for 10 years but said she could not afford to meet the standards on her own. "Do you know that one fire door costs $500.00? They wanted me to put one in my kitchen" The local bank refused her a loan. Ms Lescher, close to tears, said, "This hurts me when they say the centers don't meet high enough standards. They give me a week to do this and that and they can come anytime, I work hard but I can't meet all this."

Ms. Grayson, President of the League of Women Voters testified that working women in Cleveland can't afford day care when they can find it. Ms. Waxman of the Cleveland State University Student Government Day Care Center commented that CSU students could not afford to support their families, pay tuition and day care costs too (as high as $25 or $30 per week, per child in Cleveland). A migrant farm worker reminded the panel that migrant children do not qualify for welfare day care and are left in the hands of young children while older children and parents work in the fields.

Mr. Gerald Austin, a member of the Advisory committee, added that, "millions of dollars appropriated for day care in the early 70's went unspent,” and that in Cleveland, money available for day care goes for the salaries of a couple officials and, "that's all."

ADMINISTRATION

Many speakers complained about the lack of inspections and compliance with laws, and about the small number of centers that are actually licensed. Mr. Austin revealed that the state presently employs only 3 inspectors. Cleveland alone lists 134 Day Nurseries in the yellow pages, and hundreds of others not listed,

Local governments are responsible for the regulation of fire, building safety and food handling laws and are notoriously lax and arbitrary. One woman complained that her church was inspected by the building department and ordered to install 3 fire doors. Later the fire inspector came and told them that the doors weren't necessary-they had already been installed. Food handling deals with general cleanliness only. There are no nutrition standards, even though the state requires centers to submit menus, and as a Case Western Reserve nutritionist testified, there are no nutritionists employed by the state or local governments to inspect the menus submitted.. (Welfare does check for the "basic four foods" even though these are no longer considered adequate criteria of nutritional value.)

No laws require more than very minimal health and safety standards. There are no educational standards set for the centers, nor are centers required to be insured. No one present at the hearing was able to satisfactorily untangle or make sense of the laws, rules, regulations and standards that do govern day

care centers.

WELFARE PROBLEMS

Welfare problems were discussed at great length. In the Alice in Wonderland world of day care, welfare mothers take advantage of day care for their children because the state pays the $25 fees that most working women cannot afford.

To get work, you need day care. To get day care, you need to be on welfare. To get on welfare, you can't work the welfare merry-goround.

**

One welfare mother explained that she was out of school (Tri-C) for the summer and looking for work. No one would hire her until she had day care for her children. Because school was out, welfare had stopped paying for her day care and she could not use the school day care. If she finds a good job she might be disqualified from welfare altogether anyway.

Ms. Gwendolyn Wright, Cuyahoga County Welfare Day Care Coordinator carefully explained the many problems welfare mothers have obtaining day care. It is well to remember the vast majority of welfare recipients are mothers with young children.

the state has frozen day care expenditures. no new children are being provided with day care, although there are many applications

It may soon be necessary to cut off services to those children who are in day care centers now, because of a lack of funding.

Children who do not live with their "natural" parents (mother or father) do not qualify for day care. Welfare bases funding on a "nuclear" family definition and not an "extended" family definition, which is clos er to the real family situation of many low income families. Therefore, the county places children in the homes of strangers for day care even when their own Grannie or Aunt cares for other children at home and receives payment for doing so. * the state does not allow neglected and abused children to qualify for day care. * When the state prepares its guidelines and budgets it does not consult the counties which administer welfare and when problems Continued on page 11

page 1/What She Wants/August 197