Browse
Search
Agenda - 11-02-2006-10a
OrangeCountyNC
>
Board of County Commissioners
>
BOCC Agendas
>
2000's
>
2006
>
Agenda - 11-02-2006
>
Agenda - 11-02-2006-10a
Metadata
Thumbnails
Annotations
Entry Properties
Last modified
9/2/2008 1:31:24 AM
Creation date
8/28/2008 9:06:30 AM
Metadata
Fields
Template:
BOCC
Date
11/2/2006
Document Type
Agenda
Agenda Item
10a
Document Relationships
Minutes - 20061102
(Linked To)
Path:
\Board of County Commissioners\Minutes - Approved\2000's\2006
There are no annotations on this page.
Document management portal powered by Laserfiche WebLink 9 © 1998-2015
Laserfiche.
All rights reserved.
/
20
PDF
Print
Pages to print
Enter page numbers and/or page ranges separated by commas. For example, 1,3,5-12.
After downloading, print the document using a PDF reader (e.g. Adobe Reader).
View images
View plain text
<br />market rates paid by Orange County). Most families must qualify based on need and income, and are <br />required to pay a percentage of child care costs based on their countable monthly income. The <br />percentage depends on the number of people in the family, but ranges from 8 to 10 percent of <br />income. <br />As mentioned above, additional sources of subsidy come from specialized funding that may target <br />specific groups. Examples of this type of funding are Smart Start, More at Four, the UNC <br />Chancellor's Fund, and the additional funding allocated by the Board of County Commissioners in <br />the Orange County budget. <br />WAITING LISTS <br />In recent years, the costs of and need for care have become so high that the demand for the subsidy <br />system has far outweighed the supply. In Orange County, when insufficient funds are available to <br />meet demand, waiting lists are implemented. <br />There have been long child care subsidy waiting lists for the last few years, with Fiscal Year 2005- <br />2006 proving to be the worst. Not a single child was taken off of the waiting list at Social Services <br />between March 2005 and June 30, 2006, so that some families had been waiting over a year to receive <br />subsidy. While funding to Social Services has increased the last few years, the increase was not <br />enough to cover all the families requiring subsidy when rising costs are taken into account. The state <br />budget crisis has also affected funds available through Smart Start, causing them to either hold steady <br />or decline in recent years. At the same tune, child care providers in Orange County worked very <br />hard to improve their quality by sending more of the staff to school, hiring better educated staff, <br />improving their child-to-staff ratios and earning higher star ratings. To support these changes in <br />quality, they needed to increase their tuition rates for care. Higher tuition rates mean higher payment <br />rates for child care subsidy. Higher costs per child per month without a commensurate increase in <br />funds available has meant that fewer children can be served and waiting lists have increased. It also <br />means that fewer parents are able to afford the costs of care on their own. <br />The parent(s) in the majority of families both receiving subsidy and waiting are employed. The <br />income generated by these working parents is simply not enough to be able to meet all the family's <br />basic needs and afford child care. (See Attachment C for a list of the top employers of parents who <br />are waiting for or currently receive Child Care Subsidy through the Orange County Department of <br />Social Services.) <br />Child care subsidy waiting lists remain a critical issue for Orange County. Additional funds fox fiscal <br />year 2006-2007 were allocated by the state and the Board of County Commissioners in Orange <br />County so that fanvlies who have been waiting the longest are now receiving subsidy. Wlvle Orange <br />County is currently serving roughly 600 children in the subsidy program, there are still over 150 <br />children in Orange County who are eligible for subsidy assistance, but are not receiving it due to lack <br />of funds. These children and their families are waiting. <br />DISCUSSION <br />ISSUES <br />Because of the various backgrounds and interests of the Task Force Members, subcommittees were <br />created to allow participants to identtfy issues and attempt to solve problems specifically relevant to <br />their pursuits. The consumer subcommittee consisted of county-wide focus groups offered on two <br />separate evenings during the week, one in Hillsborough and one in Chapel Hill. The child care <br />4 <br />
The URL can be used to link to this page
Your browser does not support the video tag.