Help With Child Care

One of the reasons I can afford to live is the fact that I have subsidized child care. I take AJ to a wonderful center that would cost me about $1000 a month (about two thirds of my take-home pay). It is the highest cost bracket because she is under two and the required ratio is 4 children to 1 caregiver.

Instead, I pay roughly $175 - $200, and a community program that receives grants from the state picks up the rest. I am eligible for this program because I received public assistance after the flood (see Financial Matters) until my dad passed away (yes, I was a single mom who had a new baby AND a father dying of cancer) and AJ was about seven months old.

After you move on (up) from Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF), which is "welfare" in California, you are guaranteed two years of child care assistance to help you maintain your ascent to financial security and avoid returning to assistance.

Note: Having been through it, let me assure you people do not, in fact cannot "sit around" on welfare. In California, you are limited to 18 months of assistance at a time (5 years in your lifetime), and a single parent is required to participate in work or educational activities 32 hours per week.

(This is a perfect amount of time to get an Associate Degree or update your skills and increase your earning potential if you can. They will help you get your fees waived and pay for books.)

They do offer new moms the ability to spend six months home to bond with their babies, but only the first time. If you have an another child while you are receiving assistance, you get NO MORE MONEY and have to go back to work after six weeks.

I personally feel this is a very worthwhile program to helping poor parents become productive, tax-paying members of society for the remainder of their lives, but everyone's entitled to their own, albeit informed opinion.

Anyway, the wonderful thing is that this allows the perfect amount of time for a new mom like me to move up in her career while her small child prepares for PreK and Kindergarten. After that, child care expenses are drastically reduced and more manageable.

Another way to receive subsidized child care is to get on a waiting list directly with the agencies that serve post-assistance families and other low-income families. These lists can be a one year wait or more, but it doesn't hurt to try.

Often there are multiple agencies in your area offering some form of subsidized care, and there is now a great way to make sure you don't miss out on the one with the shortest list.

Each county has a Centralized Eligibility List (CEL) that all agencies turn to for finding families that need help. Some counties, such as mine, offer online access to sign up; others require you to call a phone number.

Here is the web site listing all the counties in California and the contact information for their CELs.

The surest way to receive help with child care is through the public assistance route. If you lose your job because you cannot secure safe, consistant care, but are wary of becoming a "welfare parent," know that it's okay to take that temporary hand up (even for a month or two) - it's what it's there for.

Within weeks you will be able to provide your kids with affordable, quality care and you can get back to striving for that American Dream.