Day care centers face license fee hike

New license fees for child care centers were going to escalate to thousands of dollars after Jan. 1 because of cuts to the Arizona Department of Health Services. Day care providers worried that as they renewed their three-year licenses, they would have to pass more costs onto families.

But parents and providers flooded the Web site of the Arizona Department of Health Services with their objections. At a press conference on Nov. 16, ADHS Interim Director Will Humble announced a new plan.

Department representatives met with First Things First, a program that promotes early childhood development, and “restructured the child care fees and figured out a way to use federal and voter-protected funds to offer a substantial discount for most child care facilities,” Humble said.

On the ADHS Web site, day care license fees were going to go up to $581 for a center with a capacity of five to 10 children and to $13,442 for a center licensed for 150 or more children.

Currently, Sonshine Christian School in Nogales pays $150 for its 3-year license, said Director Pam Willey. In October 2011, the new rate was going to be $7,380, she said.

“By all means, it should be increased, but this is astronomical,” Willey said. “They should base it (the license fee) on actual enrollment, not capacity.”

Sonshine is licensed for 129 children, but has about 85 enrolled, Willey said. “That’s about full for us. We try to keep a low student-teacher ratio.”

The fee hike would mean charging parents more than the current $405 a month for full-time care of a preschooler, Willey said.

That’s a little lower than the Santa Cruz County average �“ $430 a month for a 3- to 5-year-old child in full-time day care, said Teresa Morales de Phillips, Santa Cruz regional coordinator for First Things First. Care for an infant or toddler costs about $600 a month, she said.

No wonder many working parents apply for a child care subsidy through the Arizona Department of Economic Services (DES). But now there’s a waiting list for those subsidies.

Early this year, when the Arizona Legislature cut department funds to try to balance the state budget, “we had to do some prioritizing,” said Steve Meissner, DES director of communications. “We had no good options.”

With less money in the pot, DES created a waiting list on Feb. 18 for most new applicants for child care assistance, Meissner said. Arizona children on the list reached 9,402 on Nov. 6.

In Santa Cruz County, 144 families with 257 children receive subsidies, Meissner said. Another 31 families with 56 children are on the waiting list.

When they saw parents taking kids out of day care, members of the Santa Cruz Regional Partnership Council of First Things First provided $221,831 in emergency child care scholarships to about 75 families, Morales de Phillips said. But the funding will end on Dec. 11.

“By law, the voters approved FTF specifically to expand access to early childhood development and health programs, not to do quick fixes,” Morales de Phillips said.

At St. Andrew’s Preschool and Day Care Center in Nogales, about 10 children who benefit from those scholarships will probably leave the center, said Director Connie Cameron. “It’s very sad.”

The preschool enrolls 37 children full time and runs a part-time after-school program, Cameron said. In June, she renewed the three-year license and paid $350. The cost was scheduled to jump to $2,218 before ADHS announced the new plan.

“We can’t up the tuition because parents struggle to pay for it,” Cameron said. With a few grants and fundraisers, the center keeps the cost at $440 for full-time care.

“We have never made a profit,” Cameron said. “We haven’t had a raise in three or four years. We’re here for the children.”

When the Legislature cut funds for license fees, it also affected hospitals, assisted living and long-term care facilities, said Communication Director Laura Oxley.

Child care license fees had not been increased since 1976, Oxley said. “The child care inspection system had been underwritten by taxpayers for decades.” The new fees will shift the financial burden “to the people who are using the services,” she said.

The department created a tiered system based on how many children the facility could care for, not its actual enrollment, Oxley said. The department held public meetings in Phoenix and Tucson in October and accepted comments until Nov. 2.

If the centers adopt a new “Empower Pack” public health program for preschoolers, it could cut the new fees in half, Humble said.

The program requires centers to provide healthy food and exercise, limit television, computers and video games, and provide a tobacco-free environment, according to ADHS. Staff must also provide information to families about second-hand smoke, tobacco prevention, and how to stop smoking.