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DayCare: Summer brings child care woes

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by Rocket River, May 30, 2007.

  1. Rocket River

    Rocket River Member

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    Would some kind of Free or Low Price QUALITY Daycare really upset you so much? If so Why?

    Rocket River

    http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4846005.html

    Summer brings child care woes
    Deaths highlight risks of leaving youths at home, but options are available


    By MELANIE MARKLEY and JENNIFER RADCLIFFE
    Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

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    RESOURCES
    CHILD CARE OPTIONS

    Some places to seek summer child care:
    • Texas Department of Family and Protective Services:
    1-800-862-5252, www.dfps.state.tx.us/child_care/
    search_texas_child_care/
    ppFacilitySearchDayCare.asp

    • YMCA: 713-659-5566, www.ymcahouston.org

    • Boys & Girls Clubs: 713-868-3426 www.bgclubs-houston.org

    • Guide to summer camps: www.thesummerbook.com , $14, order by Jan. 1

    • Harris County Department of Education : 713-696-1331, www.hcde-texas.org

    • Neighborhood Centers Inc. : 713-667-9400, www.neighborhood-centers.org

    • Collaborative for Children: 713-600-1100, www.collabforchildren.org

    • National Association for the Education of Young Children : 800-424-2460, www.rightchoiceforkids.org
    No adults were home to save 3-year-old Dazzalena Escobedo and 5-year-old Michael Murphy when they died last week, one by fire and one by gunshot.

    Their deaths, particularly at the beginning of summer vacation for hundreds of thousands of Houston-area children, underscore a sobering reality: The consequences of not finding reliable child care can be deadly.

    Dazzalena died Thursday in a fire while home alone for 30 minutes with her 6-year-old sister near Hobby Airport. Authorities have said Michael was shot in the face while home alone Friday with young siblings.

    And unfortunately, say experts, thousands of Houston children are exposed to danger every day because they are left home alone by parents who think they have no alternative.

    "A lot of families can't afford day care, and they don't have connections within the community to have someone else care for their child," said Julie Crowe, director of prevention and early-intervention services at Depelchin Children's Center.

    Experts say children shouldn't be left home alone until they are old enough to prove they can handle themselves in a stressful situation. For parents, that decision becomes a judgment call, usually about the time the child reaches adolescence.

    "It's really a case-by case situation," said Susan Landry, development director of the Children's Learning Institute at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. "A little child cannot, should not, be expected to handle themselves. They haven't matured enough in terms of their decision-making, their ability to tolerate frustration."

    But finding reliable child care isn't always easy. Summertime is especially problematic for parents who typically rely on school and after-school programs to keep their children safe while they're at work. And this summer may be especially difficult for families because of a new law that pushes the start of school back until Aug. 27, extending this year's summer break by two weeks.


    Scrambling for a solution
    According to a study by the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., roughly 10 percent of 5- to 12-year-olds — or 3.3 million children nationally — spend an average of 10 hours a week unsupervised in the summer, which is twice the amount of time they spend on their own during the school year.

    "Some of it's necessity. Some of it's because they can't afford child care. Some people just make bad decisions. They feel it's appropriate. It's not," said Erica Zielewski, a research associate at the Urban Institute. Two-thirds of the Texas cases of abuse and neglect confirmed by Child Protective Services involve neglectful supervision.

    Kathy Butler at Collaborative for Children said her agency has been getting calls from parents scrambling to find summer child care. Aside from summer day camps, which can be costly, she said that parents might check into church-sponsored programs or make arrangements with neighbors who can take turns watching the children.

    The problem of summer care also plagues middle-class parents, including Steven Villano of Baytown, who is struggling to find affordable care for his 7-year-old son.

    If he can't piece together some cheaper alternatives, Villano said he may have to go into credit-card debt to foot the $130-a-week price tag of the neighborhood day care.

    "We intend to take our kid to vacation Bible school at a couple of different places," said Villano, who works for the Harris County Department of Education. "If it's that hard for me, I can't imagine how hard it is for people working two jobs, single parents."


    Plenty of choices
    Sarah Gish of Houston said she nearly panicked when her oldest son turned 5 and could no longer return to day care during the summer. Then she researched summer day camps and realized there were hundreds in the Houston area.

    In 2003, she published The Summer Book, which is updated yearly, listing some 200 day camps that offer a wide variety of programs at different costs, including some all-day programs that are free or moderately priced for low-income families. For example, the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Houston offers daylong activities for children whose parents pay a $3 annual membership.

    "There are a lot of options out there," Gish said. "A lot are filling up, but there are a lot that aren't, even at this point."

    Mari Fonte was in line early Tuesday at the YMCA-Cypress Creek to sign up her 6-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son for daylong activities at that facility's summer camp.

    Fonte had planned to let her children stay with their grandmother during the summer. But Thursday, she said, her mother had a heart attack, forcing Fonte to quickly make other arrangements.

    Felicia Bernard also was in line to enroll her children, 8 and 12, because she didn't want to leave them at home alone.

    "I'm nervous about accidents," Bernard said. "You can tell them over and over again, but when they get in the situation, you're not really sure if they'll be able to handle an emergency."

    Houston Chronicle reporter Christina M. Wright contributed to this report.

    melanie.markley@chron.com and jennifer.radcliffe@chron.com
     
  2. hotballa

    hotballa Contributing Member

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    NYC offers free summer day camps at their public schools.

    plus, if you can't afoord daycare, most churches have summer day camp on the cheap. Some charge as little as $400 for the whole summer with meals included.
     
  3. MadMax

    MadMax Contributing Member

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    wouldn't upset me at all.

    but somehow i doubt you'd get quality child care for free or at a very low cost.

    there are church VBS programs that are free all over town...but they're not all-day care. and they're not for infants.

    i see this as something the church should be doing more of, frankly. i have no problem with the govt doing it...but we have huge church buildings all around the country that go unused during the day...and people with real needs in surrounding communities....put your hands together.
     
  4. Saint Louis

    Saint Louis Member

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    Egads! Community involvement? Churches? The mention of God? Holy crap, that sounds so un-American.
     
  5. MadMax

    MadMax Contributing Member

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    it is depressing to me that i understand your sentiment. too much of the church has become a country club, turned in on itself instead of pouring itself out for others.
     
  6. Cesar^Geronimo

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    In our community (York Pa) many churches use their facilities for day care -- but it's not free.

    There is a program (I'm assuming its a national program) call CCS (child care consultants) that will pay must of childs child care cost if the family qualifies financially.

    My wife works at a center (in the office) that accepts CCS payments. CCS demands that the parents pay something -- some must pay as little as $5 a week (the goal is that the parent is somewhat accountable also). Many parents won't even pay that small amount to keep their kids in a safe place.
     
  7. MR. MEOWGI

    MR. MEOWGI Contributing Member

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    Stop having kids.
     
  8. Cesar^Geronimo

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    As much as the parents may have made wreckless and wrong choices and have shown a complete lack of irresponsibiltiy -- I think "we" still have a responsibility to the children who did not choose to be brought into those situations.
     
  9. MR. MEOWGI

    MR. MEOWGI Contributing Member

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    Fine, but sending kids to churches that are anti-birthcontrol and are in complete denial of overpopulation doesn't help solve anything.
     
  10. hotballa

    hotballa Contributing Member

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    not every church is anti-birth control. too generalizing.
     
  11. Cesar^Geronimo

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    Which church's are you talking about? Not the ones I know that have day care -- and even if they did I'm pretty sure the topic doesn't come up with 3 yrs olds.

    I've been working with pre-schoolers (in church and secular settings) for a long time and never once did we talk about birth control.
     
  12. MR. MEOWGI

    MR. MEOWGI Contributing Member

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    Not to the little kids but the parents and the followers. :)
     
  13. MadMax

    MadMax Contributing Member

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    what are you talking about? where am i?
     
  14. MR. MEOWGI

    MR. MEOWGI Contributing Member

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    Churches need to tell people to stop having children.
     
  15. updawg

    updawg Member

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    While they are acting as daycare centers?
     
  16. MR. MEOWGI

    MR. MEOWGI Contributing Member

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    All the time.
     
  17. MadMax

    MadMax Contributing Member

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    keep reaching for the stars, meowgi!!! you will shine!!!!
     
  18. MR. MEOWGI

    MR. MEOWGI Contributing Member

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    I don;t remember a single sermon on overpopulation and depletion of natural resources.

    God wants babies.
     
  19. hotballa

    hotballa Contributing Member

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    I completely agree theres too many people in America, time to close off that border to the illegals.
     
  20. updawg

    updawg Member

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    Only a bad parent would send their child to daycare in the first place. They are obviously placing materialism (money) over family.



    (wondering how many tangents this thread can take)
     

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