Ask childcare directors what their wish would be if they were promised one change and, if you’re talking to any of the ones I’ve talked to, they’re going to tell you DHHR reimbursement for Title 20 subsidies.
Title 20 funds are available for low-income families and is government assistance for childcare. A child’s spot is either paid for through private pay (families) or Title 20 funds. Let’s face it, childcare is expensive and dire to working families. Through my travels, I’ve encountered prices ranging from $158-$235 a WEEK for infants.
There is no way that a family working for $10 an hour, which, by the way, is $1.25 per-hour above West Virginia’s minimum wage, can afford childcare, so this is where Title 20 comes in to fill the gaps.
But the problem is that the gap’s not being filled. In fact, the reimbursement is crippling centers.
Centers are reimbursed for Title 20 at a rate set by the state that is well below the private pay fee. Just the other day, I was told by a director in Shepherdstown that she loses $75 a day on every infant she has in her center whose family relies on Title 20. To spare you from doing the math, that’s a $375 loss per WEEK and a $1,500 a month loss based on 20 days. If a center had 8 infants relying on Title 20 funds, that would be a whopping $12,000 loss a month.
It gets a little tricky here. As the child ages, the reimbursement rate from DHHR drops, meaning that centers are reimbursed less while still required to maintain the same standards. The gap between private pay and Title 20 continues to widen. Centers rely on their private pay families to help them hold on, which causes conflicted feelings. A private pay family has to pay for a day whether the child attends or not, meaning that in order to hold their spot, they pay tuition for their child even for the days they do not use the center. The huge bonus in this is that your child is guaranteed his/her spot, which is extremely important when centers have wait lists that are three years long.
If a Title 20 family doesn’t attend 13 full days a month, the center doesn’t get the whole reimbursement, which further puts them in a precarious situation. Some centers were putting attendance policies into place, but DHHR told them that they were not allowed to do it. There are no excused days for Title 20 families that allow the centers to collect full reimbursement.
The way Title 20 is set up is yet one more way for assistance programs to be a handout rather than a hand-up. Across the state, centers are eliminating Title 20 slots from their centers because they simply can’t afford not to, and it’s the Title 20 folks who really need childcare so they can even begin thinking about lifting themselves out of poverty.
The low reimbursement rates create other problems for the centers, as well. To begin with, childcare staff are being paid low wages, regardless of the fact they are highly trained. They are struggling to make ends meet, and, although their hearts break over it, the centers are in no financial position to offer raises, which is the second thing that has come up in conversations with childcare directors … they can’t pay their staff what they deserve.
What’s happening is that centers are closing their doors, feeding the crisis we already face with lack of childcare. Some centers have been forced to close classrooms because they couldn’t find the staff who were willing to do so much for so little. Staff retention is a huge problem.
The childcare crisis compounds other existing problems. Take foster families, for example. We are in a foster care emergency with over 6,000 children in the foster care system, but with no childcare available, families aren’t able to open their homes to a child in need. Centers can’t afford to have unfilled slots, preventing them from leaving slots available for foster families.
Often seen as “glorified babysitters,” early childhood teachers play such an important role. They are not babysitting, they are helping brain development. They are laying the foundation for physical, mental, social, and emotional development. And they are forced to do it for poverty wages. From my travels, the pay for center staff ranges from $8.75-$10.75 an hour. Trust me, if you have ever spent the day with 8 infants or 2 year olds, you know what early educators do is worth its weight in gold.
The state of West Virginia needs to be pushed to look at the state of childcare. Not only do we have entire counties without childcare options, but we’re also perpetuating poverty with the way Title 20 is reimbursed. Centers are struggling to make ends meet while low-income families are struggling to make childcare work with their schedules, income, and circumstances. Directors are certain there is a better way, and we are going to begin the process of finding legislative supporters to address these issues.
Talk to your directors. Ask them about helping to plan a town hall to discuss the challenges with childcare. Ask them how to get involved with talking to your legislators. We have to support those who provide such a vital role in our children’s lives.
It’s time we all care more about childcare.
