State gets $38 million from stimulus for child care

Virginia is getting $38 million in new federal aid for child care, but less than half the money will be used to reduce a waiting list of 8,100 underprivileged children who need the service.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said the state intends to spend $18 million of the federal stimulus funds on subsidies for child care for low-income families so the parents can work or receive job training.

Most, about $14 million, of the remaining money will be spent on an automated system to track payments by localities to child-care providers, and $6 million will be used to expand a new program for inspecting and improving the quality of subsidized child-care programs across Virginia.

"When parents can work and still send their children to a safe and enriching environment -- and when child-care programs have the opportunity to enhance their skills and services -- our families, communities and economy are all made stronger," Kaine said in a statement yesterday.

Local human-services officials across Virginia have expressed concern over the state's plan to use such a large share of the money on technology instead of services for children.

"Because of the national recession, many individuals previously not seeking financial assistance are doing so now to meet basic family obligations," Verdia L. Haywood, president of the Virginia Association of Local Human Services Officials, said in a letter to the governor. In the letter, she urged the state to spend the money to reduce the waiting list and improve reimbursements for child-care providers.

Most of the children on the waiting list live in five localities, including Henrico County, according to the Virginia Department of Social Services. The other localities with the biggest need for the service are in Northern Virginia. Henrico officials did not have an estimate of how many children are waiting for the service there.

Currently, Virginia provides the child-care subsidy to about 55,000 children statewide. The state sends money to local social-services departments, which pay child-care providers directly for the service. The automated system will administer and track the payments.

"The automation will benefit families for years to come," said Anthony Conyers Jr., the state commissioner of social services.

Conyers and department spokeswoman Marianne McGhee said the investment in the automated system is a good use of federal stimulus money that will end by 2011. "We have to be able to sustain the program beyond the two-year federal window," McGhee said.

But Haywood, a deputy county executive in Fairfax County, told the governor that local social-services departments are able to manage the long-term commitment as some children become too old for the service.

"We suggest that now is not the time to be concerned about the use of one-time funding, when so many families are in need of this assistance now," she said.