Zack Sampsel
Ukiah Daily Journal
With the California state budget in a seemingly constant state of limbo, many state-funded child care providers in Mendocino and Lake Counties are living first-hand the difficulties of doing business without funding.
North Coast Opportunities, Inc. serves 734 children each month, including 422 in Mendocino County and 312 in Lake County. NCO also pays 476 child care providers each month in areas like family child care home providers and child care centers, but with no funding from the state, NCO is having trouble providing funds.
Each month, NCO pays $565,000 in payments to child care providers throughout Mendocino and Lake counties. And even with a budget, funding is still sometimes a hit-or-miss situation at NCO.
According to Denise Gorny, NCO rural communities child care director, even as of July 1, when the 2007-2008 budget year began, the budget problems were there. Gorny said NCO could only send providers a half paycheck in July because of a glitch at the state level, which further complicated an already trying situation.
“The biggest problem is that we cannot send the providers their reimbursement for caring for kids,” Gorny said.
“The checks that come are like a three-month advance, and in essence we aren”t able to give them their paychecks. We literally can”t pay our bills without a state budget. It affects so many businesses in the two counties, you can”t even imagine.”
One of the businesses feeling the effects of the slow-moving Senate is Catherine Hatch”s Hatch Family Day School on Lake Mendocino Drive. Hatch helps to serve children with ages ranging from 1-12.
The four-acre day school provides child care, preschool and a summer camp, while also providing the children with a chance to get involved with community events and hiking. But Hatch said continuing at a normal level has been tough without funding from the state. She said she has used her own personal savings to help provide food for her students.
“Our children need to be first before anything else. The families deserve this help. Many are trying to rise above welfare, and the children are the ones caught in the mix,” Hatch said.
Gorny said that even if the Senate passed the budget today, it would still take from 4 to 6 weeks to get checks to the different providers.
Although NCO provides assistance to the Head Start programs in Mendocino and Lake counties, Gorny said Head Start will not face a problem with funding because of it”s status as a federal program.
Zack Sampsel is a staff writer for the Ukiah Daily Journal, a sister publication of the Lake County Record-Bee, and he can be reached at udjzs@pacific.net.
