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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