Child Care Task Force Report: Ambassadors for Children
Executive Summary
The Community Action Network created the Child Care Task Force, "Ambassadors
for Children", in March 1999 as a community-wide initiative responding
to the need for accessible, affordable and quality child care in the greater
Austin area.
In greater Austin, virtually all child care centers are reporting extreme
difficulty in recruiting and retaining qualified staff. During the summer
of 1999, two child care centers closed because they were unable to find
qualified staff and another, that had served downtown Austin for over 30
years recently announced that it is closing for reasons related to staffing.
Pay for child care staff is low, averaging $7 - 8 per hour, and benefits
rarely include sick and vacation leave or health insurance. Although the
cost of child care is steadily increasing, the income generated from tuition
alone is not enough to either pay teachers adequately or to purchase appropriate
learning materials. As a result, the classroom environments often have
inadequate resources and teachers are both underpaid and under-trained.
The consequences of poor quality child care can be devastating -- inadequate
care can significantly delay brain development. During the early, most
formative years, a child develops the foundation for success throughout
life. A sense of self-esteem, emotional competency and a grasp of the fundamentals
of literacy are formed in the child's first few years. Quality child care
helps children develop to their full potential by focusing optimal attention
on development of the "whole" child - physical, motor, social,
emotional, language and intellectual.
Quality child care is an integral part of our community's infrastructure,
contributing to a strong economy and a competent work force. When good
child care is affordable and available for working parents, employers benefit
through less absenteeism, increased productivity and higher rates of employee
retention. The community at large reaps long-term benefits from higher
literacy rates and lower delinquency rates.
The committtees of the Child Care Task Force reviewed "best practices"
from around the country and made specific recommendations for programs
that can help in solving the immediate child care crisis as well as creating
a structure for the Fund For Child Care Excellence . The creation of the
Fund is a direct result of a recommendation from earlier work accomplished
by the Austin Child Care Council to establish a "Community Child Care
Fund".
The mission of the Fund for Child Care Excellence addresses the concerns
surrounding the accessibility, affordability and quality of child care
in our community. To accomplish its mission, the Fund has set the following
goals:
- Increase the number of available child care teachers
- Improve teacher training and teacher wages
- Increase public awareness of early education and development issues
- Expand materials/resources for child care programs
- Provide scholarships to families for child care
To accomplish these goals, the Fund has determined that projects to
be considered for future funding will be centered around four general categories:
teacher/director support to improve retention and training of child care
staff; public education and recognition to raise public awareness of the
importance of early childhood development; infrastructure projects that
provide materials for early childhood classrooms, playgrounds and facility
construction or improvement; and child care subsidies/family scholarships
to help families better afford quality child care.
Return to Top
