SD15 - Interim Report of the Department for Children on the Rural Child-Care Project

  • Published: 1989
  • Author: Department for Children
  • Enabling Authority: Senate Bill 325 (Regular Session, 1988)

Executive Summary:
As greater numbers of women with children enter the workforce and single-parent families grow, Virginia must face the need to strengthen and support working parents in all areas of the Commonwealth. Child care, a problem for many working parents, becomes overwhelming for some, particularly in rural localities where child-care services are scarce. Strategies to generate quality child-care services in support of the workforce in rural localities are not currently in place statewide. Sufficient resources to develop new child-care services or to adequately utilize existing resources are not available. State government must, therefore, provide technical assistance to localities to encourage the expansion of a coordinated child-care delivery system in rural communities.

Caroline County residents recently recognized the gap in child-care services in their community. Through their efforts, the 1988 General Assembly was alerted to the child-care dilemma in rural communities and mandated special technical assistance to develop pilot rural child-care programs through the collaborative efforts of the Department for Children, the Department of Social Services, and the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service. (Senate Bill 325, Chapter 198, 1988 Acts of the Assembly)

This two year effort has two phases. During the first phase, several activities were planned and implemented in Caroline County:

- a publicity campaign, which included a county-wide project kick-off event, to inform the public about local child-care concerns and to recruit child-care providers;

- special recruitment and training of family day-care providers;

- a "Child-Care Providers' Short Course" to orient new caregivers to the profession;

- technical assistance for the development of child-care financial resources for use in the county, including the Child Day Care Fee System Program, the United States Department of Agriculture Child Care Food Program, and Virginia Cooperative Extension Service funding; and

- a part-time child-care technician hired by the local Extension Service to coordinate local recruitment and referral services.

During the second phase of the project, training opportunities will be expanded through the Community College System, additional funding sources will be identified and tapped, and center-based child-care options will be explored. Employer involvement will be sought at a variety of levels.

Tentative conclusions of the project include:

• A grass-roots, community-generated and supported effort is key to the success of meeting rural child-care needs.

• Collaboration and cooperation among agencies, public and private groups, jurisdictions, and citizen groups are paramount to effecting solutions to child-care problems in rural areas.

• Public education efforts are needed to inform communities concerning local child-care service gaps, service requirements, and child-care professionalism.

• Training, technical assistance. and support services are essential to maintaining a coordinated, child-care system in a rural community.