Day Care Enrollments Plummet as Families Struggle to Pay the Bills

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 23:13:00 GMT

New Horizons daycare center just outside of Chicago has seen its enrollment cut by 50 percent in the last three months. And a San Gabriel, California daycare saw its enrollment go from 51 kids last year to 15 this year.

As the economy goes from scary to terrifying, parents around the country are being forced to cut back on childcare or pull their kids out of daycare altogether, relying instead on extended family or drastic changes to their own work lives.

"It is not about people making choices to drive a second car," said Diane Stout, who is the executive director of New Horizons. "For many low income people it is making a choice for food." And, with yearly day care costs averaging between $3,380 and $10,787 for childcare for one preschooler, even middle income families are being faced with the need to cut back on childcare.

Providers say they are seeing increased disciplinary problems amongst kids who are stressed by their families’ financial problems and by the loss of many of their friends in daycare.

And many fear that kids will be placed in dangerous situations as their parents’ desperation increases. Even families who qualify for aid often don’t bother applying since the waiting list is so long, being forced instead to put their children in questionable situations while they work to pay the rent and put food on the table. One woman, was instance, was leaving her four-year-old daughter in her car while she worked at a shoe store, checking on her every hour.

As the executive director of Child Care Solutions, a New York referral agency put it, "We are driving people into an unregulated system."

Photo: AP

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Wha? School Starts Sex Abuse Investigation Based on Psychic's Tip

Kelly Mills — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:02:00 GMT

File this one under, "If it happened to me, my rage would know no bounds." Colleen Leduc has an eleven-year-old daughter, Victoria, who is autistic. Last month, shortly after she picked up her daughter from school, she got a call from the teacher saying she should come to the school immediately for an urgent matter. When she arrived for the meeting with the teacher, principal, and vice-principal, the teacher told her an educational aide in the classroom had been to see a psychic over the weekend, and that the psychic said a little girl with the initial "V" was being sexually abused by a man in his twenties.

Ridiculous, no? Well, by the time the meeting took place, the school HAD ACTUALLY REPORTED IT to Children's Aid Services, opening an investigation. Oh, and they gave Colleen a list of behaviors Victoria was exhibiting--like gyrating on staff members--and said that while these behaviors were consistent with autism, they were part of the report. When Colleeen asked if other autistic kids in the calss did these things, she was told yes, but none of those kids were reported because there was no psychic tip.

Fortunately the CAS worker on the case closed it immediately, so hopefully no more fall-out. But it sure is an example of how "zero tolerance" towards even a hint of abuse can veer into the profoundly idiotic in the wrong hands. I sure hope Colleen gets an apology from the school very, very soon. I might be tempted to tell them, "A psychic told me to bitch-slap you."

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Day Care Enrollments Plummet as Families Struggle to Pay the Bills

Wha? School Starts Sex Abuse Investigation Based on Psychic's Tip