Committee Report CR-1
The Civic Unity Committee held a public meeting on October 1, 2009 at one o'clock p.m. in the Sullivan Chamber. The meeting was held for the following purposes:
To receive information regarding the closing of early childhood education programs in Cambridge and the current need for maintenance and/or expansion of childcare programs in Cambridge.
Present at the meeting were Councillor Marjorie Decker, Chair of the Committee, City Clerk D. Margaret Drury, and Omar Bandar, Aide to Councillor Decker. Also present were Lynn Hall, Director, Cambridge Community Partnership for Children, Cambridge Public Schools, Kathy Roberts, retired founder and director of a daycare center, Ellen J. Wolpert, Coordinator, Community Partnerships for Children, Randi Epstein, Cambridge Child Care Resource Center, Sheli Wortis, retired from Cambridge Community Partnerships for Children, Lei-Anne Ellis, Division Head, Pre-School and Early Childhood Services, DHSP, Michelle Farnum, Division Head, Youth Services, DHSP, Bill Doncaster, Director of Public Affairs, Lesley University.
Ms. Wolpert provided a chart showing the total number of childcare slots and the number of vacancies in these Cambridge childcare centers
She said that there are actually vacant slots for affordable childcare in Cambridge, a different picture from what they usually see. She believes there are two reasons for the current availability. One is that the new Montessori program at the Tobin School accepts three year-olds and the other is that there is a freeze on the state voucher program for child care subsidies.
Ms. Epstein said that the Childcare Resource Center has a database of 630 programs in the greater Boston area, and that database currently shows 150 openings. She added that most are private paying spots, and low income working families cannot afford the cost of those programs.
Ms. Roberts said that with regard to the voucher program, the ceiling for income eligibility is very low. The maximum income must be less than 50 percent of the state median income, which is less than $39,000 per year for a family of three. In addition, the documentation requirements are high and undocumented persons are not eligible. Ms. Roberts informed the committee that the average annual cost of fulltime care is almost $12,000 for preschool childcare.
Councillor Decker said she sees three broad categories: 1) families that can pay private rates, 2) documented families with income low enough to qualify for state voucher, 3) all those families in between.
Ms. Ellis stated that the City of Cambridge runs seven preschools for 122 children. They have eleven openings. There is a sliding scale for payments and the charge is $774 a month for the lowest category for payment. These programs are all open ten hours a day, 51 weeks a year. She noted there are two issues of mismatch with regard to childcare centers. There are centers that cannot fill their slots because of unemployment among the parents. There is also a voucher wait list and a deficit of $25 million in the voucher program. Currently 35 percent of the families of children in the DHSP programs are on scholarships. They serve children who are Cambridge City residents or the children of Cambridge employees.
Councillor Decker said that she was happy to support Al-Bustan-Malik to get another year in their current location because of unfairness in the process to make them leave. However, it would be very difficult to go back to ask the City Council to support more subsidies at the expense of affordable housing for Cambridge residents with the ratio of nonresidents to residents in Al Bustan's students. However, programs like Al-Bustan have a real need for affordable space and Cambridge needs to find ways to help programs like Al-Bustan stay in the community. Ms. Wortis said that the other issue for that space is that it should remain as space for childcare. When the recession is over, there will be more need for childcare. With respect to trying to keep 800 Memorial Drive as childcare space, Councillor Decker said that it would be helpful for this group to talk to members of the Affordable Housing Trust.
Ms. Roberts said that there is a new issue with regard to children of homeless families. Ms. Epstein said that under new state regulations they are no longer eligible for immediate access to vouchers.
Councillor Decker said that she would like to see how many Cambridge children and childcare spaces there are, separated by infant/toddler and pre-school spaces, for each following categories:
Ms. Wortis said they also need to also discuss family childcare - what kind of supports and training are available for licensed home daycare programs. Ms. Epstein said that the requirements for licensing are getting stricter, and may mean that many providers will leave the profession or go underground.
Ms. Wolpert said there are already many unlicensed family daycare programs. The CCRC lists 18 but the Center for Families sees 55 home day care centers. Ms. Epstein said that CCRC records show 41 licensed daycare programs with 121 preschool slots.
Councillor Decker said that she would like to see the City Council create a value statement on the importance of an adequate supply of high quality childcare for Cambridge residents that could become part of the goals of the City Council. She added that the City Council has the ability, when it has the knowledge of a particular need, to impact the city budget.
Ms. Epstein said that the biggest need to look at is affordability because the families are not going to get vouchers. There used to be a DHSP scholarship/subsidy from CDBG funds. Ms. Wolpert said that Headstart has a lot of openings.
Councillor Decker said that perhaps the City could create a campaign for childcare scholarships, like the City college scholarships. She said it would be useful to bring other people to the table on this issue, for example, the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce. She said they could also look at requiring a percentage of construction costs to go to childcare, like the One Percent for the Arts program. Ms. Wortis said that she believes that the Kids' Council did some work on childcare policies. Ms. Drury said that several years ago the City Council adopted a childcare policy that the Kids' Council had worked on. It did include looking at childcare needs in planning new public buildings.
Councillor Decker said that she wants to have a working group on childcare issues such as creating adequate space for childcare. She asked Ms. Drury to distribute copies of the previous childcare policy to all in attendance of this meeting
Councillor Decker then moved to the issue of using youth centers for play groups. She said that while this goes on at some centers, we do not use all five centers this way now. Ms. Ellis said that before the recent funding cuts they used to run 18 playgroups. Now, during each of 44 weeks, they have seven drop-in play groups. They also have a program called Community Play Group which is a very structured curriculum based on the "Let's Talk" curriculum. Currently there is a 70-family wait list. The program targets families that are at risk and are not connected to the services that could help them. Councillor Decker said that the Center for Families needs more space. The best play space provided in Cambridge is the space presented by the City, but the space is not permanent. She would like to use the youth centers as play space. That could be an opportunity for the youth staff to get fulltime jobs with benefits. We could bring Lesley in to do certification training for these employees. Ms. Wortis said that it is important to start with an assessment of demand or need.
Ms. Hall said that the field of early childhood is very specific and takes a long time to master. She would not want anyone to have the expectation that a few hours of training would qualify someone with no previous experience to become child care providers. Ms. Ellis said that space for play groups is limited. Having the appropriate equipment and space to explore is important. Training would be very important. She said that in future they should involve the Library and the 0-8 Council in these discussions.
Councillor Decker thanked all those present for their participation. The meeting adjourned at two o'clock and thirty-three minutes p.m.