Paradise for the privileged few

By Linda Prendez , On-line Forty-Niner

May 14,1998

 

Campus-based child care centers offer incentive for student-parents, but few can accommodate the need

Every morning, Jackie Moore wakes up at 7 a.m.

 

She gets herself ready for school, and then dresses her 6-month-old daughter Ryshauna. By 9 a.m. the two are on the bus, headed for school - together.

 

Moore, with her back pack on, her child in one arm, and stroller and diaper bag in another, is lucky if she gets a seat. Otherwise, the ride is a virtual juggling act all the way to CSULB.

 

This juggling act is indicative of her day's struggle, taking her child to classes, and even 49er women's basketball practice, because she cannot afford child care.

 

The estimated cost of child care is $80 to $100 a week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Although there are many resources available for low-income parents, such as Supplemental and Transitional Child Care reimbursements for welfare recipients who work, Moore's burden is compounded because she goes to school full time, and she does not own a car.

 

"I've tried looking for something, but I need a place that is affordable and on my way to school," said the CSULB freshman, who lives with her mother and siblings in Long Beach. "I can't go out of my way."

 

The most convenient solution for Moore would seem to be a campus-based child care center.

 

However, Ryshauna may never play within the walls of CSULB's Isabel Patterson Child Development Center infant-toddler program. The center, which depends on student fees for 28 percent of its operating costs, has an excessive number of applications each semester - especially for the infant-toddler program.

 

The wait can be as long as two years.

 

The big picture

Moore's case mirrors a bigger picture - an extensive lack of quality child care services for parents throughout the country.

 

Only 29 percent, one in three, preschoolers were cared for in organized child care facilities. Six percent were in a situation similar to Moore, having to care for their child at their workplace or while they worked at home.

 

The statistics for student parents are probably even more dim.

 

The U.S. Department of Education Center for Educational Statistics reports that 25 percent of independent college students have dependents. Of that number, nearly 3.7 million students, it is not clear how many require child care, but experts are certain the number is great.

 

According to Jo Copeland, director of the National Coalition of Campus Child Care Centers (NCCCC), working parents without college degrees are realizing they cannot compete in the job market, hence making it harder to support their families. She says many of them are choosing to return to school.

 

"The number of nontraditional students is soaring throughout the country, especially those who are single parents" said Copeland, who runs a campus-based children's center at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

 

Finding child care is sometimes difficult for these students, Copeland said, because many have specialized needs. Like Moore, student-parents tend to have low incomes and can be limited geographically. Some require more child care than full-time working parents because they may work and go to school on the same days.

 

Campus-based centers are usually established specifically to meet these kinds of needs. But in most cases, the centers are only serving a small portion of students, according to Cindy Brown, legislative analyst for the American Association of University Women.

 

State University of New York, the state's public system, reports that it accommodates 20 to 25 percent of students requiring child care. That average is high and the numbers are probably significantly lower throughout the country, Brown said.

 

"If we look at [campus-based] centers across the country, it's more likely that they are serving as little as 10 to 20 percent of the need," Brown said.

 

The disparity between supply and demand of campus-based child care centers is unmistakably evident at CSULB's Child Development Center, where there are about 150 families on the waiting list.

 

CSULB officials do not know how many students on campus are parents. The university tracks the number of students by race, sex and age, but not by family size. The lack of statistics on student-parents at CSULB reflects the university's difficulty in accommodating its child care needs.

 

Microcosm of a dilemma

Junior criminal justice majors Alex Castillo and Isabel Pasillas decided to continue attending CSULB after their daughter Alyssa was born a year and a half ago.

 

School has never been so tough. The two alternate between books and diapers, trying to maintain GPAs and care for their daughter. The couple runs a tight schedule.

 

Castillo works mornings until noon while Pasillas cares for Alyssa. Afterward, he drives to their Long Beach residence and takes Pasillas to her 12:30 p.m. class.

 

The baby stays with her father until it's time for his night classes, at which point the parents trade places again. They said they do not find time to study until Alyssa is asleep.

 

Pasillas said she looked to the Isabel Patterson Child Development Center for help.

The Child Development Center was established in 1975 by Associated Students Inc. to provide quality child care services which enable student-parents to attend classes. It is now one of the largest in the CSU system.

 

With its "child-centered" philosophy, the center is attractive to many parents who want their child's individual needs to be met in a loving environment. In the center's infant-toddler program, the highest ratio of children to caregivers is 4 to 1.

 

"When we first got on the waiting list, we were told the wait would be a year," said Pasillas, who added Alyssa to the waiting list in the summer of 1997. "When I saw how great the center was, I didn't mind waiting."

 

However, Pasillas said when she last checked, officials at the Child Development Center told her she would have to seek other options for fall semester. In the meantime, Alyssa's parents will struggle unless they can find an affordable solution.

Castillo and Pasillas are probably not be the only parents facing this difficult situation.

 

Many student-parents are forced to look for other options, no matter how well their campus-based center is working to accommodate needs.

According to Copeland, long waiting lists are the norm. Because of the usual well-educated staffs of these centers the demand becomes even greater, she said.

 

"The average wait is six months to a year, sometimes a little longer," Copeland said. "So [the centers] get organized so they can better meet the need."

 

Many students manipulate the waiting list procedure by applying before they begin classes. Some even apply before their children are born. Though this may seem unfair, some centers do allow it, including the Child Development Center.

 

But the CSULB center seems to be doing its best to serve students on its waiting list. Recently, its board of directors voted to modify waiting-list procedures to better meet students needs. And although the center is only licensed to care for 168 children, it accommodates more by flexible scheduling.

 

"It's heartbreaking to see families suffer, but I think we're serving a great need," said program coordinator Rhonda Marikos. "We serve about 250 families, and that's not to be taken lightly."

 

According to Marikos, in the fall the Child Development Center will be able to accommodate all families on its waiting list for the preschool and school age programs. It is the infant-toddler program that is proving to be the longer wait.

 

Before re-enrollment for fall of 1998, there were six or more applicants who have been waiting for two years to get into the infant-toddler program. Such a long wait can prove problematic for transfer students who may be ready to graduate by the time space is available for their children.

 

Responding to the need

When President Clinton announced his Child Care Initiative at the beginning of the year, he promised to invest $20 billion over five years in improving the status quo of child care in America.

 

In the 105th congress, more than 50 bills are dedicated to child care . Only three provisions are specifically targeted at student parents.

 

The provisions, contained in the both the Senate and House versions of the Higher Education Amendments of 1998, and in the Women's Higher Education Opportunity Act of 1998, are nearly identical, having all originated from the same bill.

 

Originally introduced as S.1551 by Sens. Christopher Dodd, (D-Conn.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) on Sept. 5, 1997, the bill has made its way through Congress without too many modifications, according to Todd Boressoff, the man most responsible for drafting the legislation.

 

Boressoff, NCCCC public policy chairman, is anxiously awaiting the outcome of a vote Senate version, S. 1882, which NCCCC has endorsed. It is expected to go to conference the first week of June.

 

Boressoff, who is director of Borough of Manhattan Community College Early Childhood Center in New York, said when welfare reform legislation was passed, he and other colleagues realized that subsidies for student parents were effectively eliminated. Transitional child care programs, he said, catered only to those who go from welfare to work.

 

"For real welfare reform to work, and for people to get jobs that they keep to support their families, they need to go to school," Boressoff said.

 

The House version of the campus-based child care provision, which was passed last week, grants $30 million, is only for upstart, and is not renewable. The Senate version, if passed, will grant $60 million nationally for expansion and upstart of college child care centers. A school can qualify for up to 1 percent of its pervious total of federal Pell Grant awards, and most importantly, Boressoff said, it is renewable.

 

"Campus-based child care is an extraordinarily overlooked component," Boressoff said. "To my knowledge, there is no hard national research on how well these centers are serving students." Campuses do not keep those kinds of statistics, Boressoff said. So, to get a better idea of the status, Boressoff sent hundreds of email messages to centers around the country. He said he found that there is an enormous demand for child care services at college campuses.

 

According to the bill, Congress found, students who are parents base their choice of campus on whether or not the school has a child care center. The study also showed that these students rate access to campus-based programs as an important factor in continuing college enrollment and eventually graduating.

 

But will the legislation be the saving grace for students who wait semester after semester for their children to be enrolled at a campus center?

 

If the Senate bill passes, CSULB will qualify for a maximum of $145,000 - only five percent of the Child Development Center's total operating costs. And if the amount is sufficient for expansion, will centers be willing to?

 

Most campus-based child care centers are distinguished by their small, intimate programs.

 

Jennifer Jost, infant-toddler program coordinator for the Child Development Center, said that most centers she has worked at were never willing to sacrifice quality for quantity.

 

"I would never make a change at the expense of the children," Jost said.

 

Using federal grants for expansion may not be so easy. Child Development Center Director Pam MacDonald said that many other factors must be taken into consideration: new building and staff costs and, as is the case for CSULB, land availability. Many centers, she said, are "land-locked."

 

Marikos said that satellite centers might be a better solution.

 

"Lots of them, under the umbrella of one institution."

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