September 30, 2010

Click here to download the new Regulations.

Rules Training:

*Only 2 people per licensee allowed to attend due to limited space/classes offered;

*Call your local DHS office to register, as there is limited seating available.

*Provide your email address to receive documents for training prior to the scheduled meeting.

The Tucson Office is offering Rules Training in September for all areas that office covers:

TUCSON – September 14, 2010

400 W. Congress; Room 158; Tucson, AZ 85701

6-8 p.m. 

TUCSON – September 16, 2010

400 W. Congress; Room 158; Tucson, AZ 85701

9-11 a.m.

WILLCOX – September 21, 2010

Willcox Migrant & Seasonal Head Start; 611 N. Bisbee Ave.; Willcox, Arizona 85643

10 a.m. – Noon

SIERRA VISTA- September 23, 2010

DES Office; 830 E. Fry Blvd; Sierra Vista, Arizona

10 a.m. – Noon

YUMA -September 27, 2010

Arizona Western College; 2020 S. Ave. 8E; Room AC 278; Yuma, Arizona 85365

1-3 p.m.

The Phoenix Office is offering Rules Training in September and October for all areas that office covers:

Downtown – September 21, 2010

Department of Health Services; 150 North 18th Avenue, Suite 400, Phoenix, Arizona 85007

9 – 11 AM (Capacity 30)

North Valley – September 21, 2010

Cave Creek Unified School District; 33606 North 60th Street, Scottsdale, Arizona 85226

6 – 8 PM (Capacity 50)

East Valley – September 23, 2010

Higley Unified School District; 2935 South Recker Road, Gilbert, Arizona 85295

6 – 8 PM (Capacity 100)

East Valley – October 4th 2010

First Baptist Church; 4801 East Brown Road, Mesa, Arizona 85205

6:30 – 8:30 (Capacity 38)

Downtown – October 5th 2010

Department of Health Services; 150 North 18th Avenue, Suite 400, Phoenix, Arizona 85007

4 – 6 PM (Capacity 30)

West Valley – October 9, 2010

Dr. Saide Recreation Center; 1003 East Eason Avenue, Buckeye, Arizona 85326

9 – 11 AM

South Valley – October 14th 2010

Tutor Time; 3316 East Baseline Road, Phoenix, Arizona 85042

6:30 – 8:30 PM (Capacity 50)

The Flagstaff Office:

Several trainings are currently being scheduled. Dates and locations will be announced.

We opened our first center in 1971. We currently own, Children’s Campus ( opened 1982), Children’s Campus Too (opened 2002) and Premier Children’s Center (opened 1999).

I have always had a great love and respect for children. In grade school I helped my mother with her Sunday school classes. I became a mother at the age of 17 and our second son was born two years later. In 1964, while at home with our little ones, I started doing childcare in our home.

In 1966, I went to work for a pre-school as the four year old teacher. Back in those days the ratios were 1:25 for 4’s. However, owners didn’t go by state ratios and most days I had 30 pre-school children by myself. Over the years I have told my staff that I survived by deciding: 1. those little children would not get the best of me and 2. I needed a job. So I loved and played with all 30 of those children. Every day at nap time I would crawl over to each cot and tell each child how much I loved them. I made sure that several times a day each child got individual attention from me, while still supervising the whole group.

Read their full story/interview

Click here to view candidates’ responses to ACCA and to CAA Survey.

Copy of ACCA e-mail to Candidates

Dear House or Senate Candidate,

The Arizona Child Care Association is a membership organization of private licensed businesses and non-profits that provide early care and education to tens of thousands of children from infants through school age, every day, throughout Arizona.

We want to raise awareness of the devastating impact of the State child care “waiting” (denial) list.  Eligible low income parents who want to work and support their children are being denied child care assistance.  Young children are not able to receive safe and stimulating care.  Child care providers, already hit hard by the recession, are closing – damaging the infrastructure that working parents rely on.

We are making this issue known to all candidates for the State legislature and we are encouraging our members locally to support candidates who will support restoring funding for child care assistance and make it a priority.

Please take a few minutes to watch this video and let us know whether we can count on your support if elected in November. Click here to watch the Restore Child Care in Arizona Video

Thank you for your time and consideration.  Please contact me if you would like any additional information.

Sincerely,

Bruce Liggett, Executive Director

___________________________________________________________________________

Children’s Action Alliance (CAA) sent a comprehensive survey to candidates covering health, child abuse, etc. CAA has allowed us to include the candidates’ responses to their child care question (below) on our web site.

The full CAA survey responses may be found on by clicking here .

Children’s Action Alliance Child Care Survey Question

Many parents cannot afford child care costs of $5,000 to $10,000 per child per year. State and federal tax dollars have helped to fill in the gap for Arizona working families for the past 45 years. This public funding gives qualified parents a voucher to choose the child care that works best for their families while they go to work. Since February 2009, all eligible low income working families (totaling more than 13,000 children) who applied for child care assistance have been turned away due to budget cuts. The number of participating children has dropped from 29,000 in January 2009 to 16,000 in February 2010. This means thousands of children are in unsafe or unstable child care.

The CAA survey asked the candidate to rate on a 1(disagree) to 5 (agree) scale the statement “…indicating your level of support for restoring funding for child care subsidy for qualified working families.”

Click here to view candidates’ responses to ACCA and to CAA Survey.

_________________________________________________________________________

We also encourage you to check out the Arizona Republic candidate responses by clicking here.

Bill Berk – Tucson

Thank you for the attention you are bringing to the travesty involving child-care subsidies for the working poor (“State must not let subsidies die for those in need,” Editorial, Monday). The number of children currently on the waiting list can be counted. What can’t be counted is the number of children being left home alone or with unsuitable caregivers while their parents attempt to earn a living and support their families. The safety of all our children is at stake, yet the governor and Legislature seemingly turn a blind eye to the struggles of working parents as they try to better their lives.

Parents without access to safe, affordable and reliable child care are unable to work. Instead, they stop working and access more state-funded programs. While funding child care may seem expensive, the cost pales compared to supporting a family on welfare.

The Arizona Republic

Imagine researching a company to a T, ironing your best duds for an interview and then taking your snotty-nosed toddler who is likely to cry or scream along to face a potential employer in an interview.

Peoria resident George Gormsen doesn’t have to imagine. The 31-year-old Web designer had the pleasure twice after he found himself in the unemployment market between November and June.

With his wife, Renee, working during the day, his daughter, Lorelai, now 14 months old, tagged along on interviews.

“That just didn’t look professional at all,” Gormsen said.

Shockingly, he didn’t land either position. He’s sure Lorelai’s presence was at least part of the reason.

But Gormsen is now back to work at a Peoria car dealership, and he can’t thank a Peoria day-care provider enough.

The Peoria dad was able to interview without Lorelai in tow, thanks to a free trial day at Sunrise Preschools.

The nearly 30-year-old Valley preschool, along with Tots Unlimited, another preschool and child-care center owned by the same company, is offering Interview Care, a free, no-strings-attached service to Valley parents of children ages 6 weeks to 12 years.

Dana Vela, president of Sunrise Preschools, hopes the offer of free licensed child care for unemployed parents to use when they go for an interview helps the community.

“There is a definite need out there,” she said.

The creative offer could have a longer-range benefit, helping to boost enrollment at a time when preschools are struggling as parents lose jobs.

The offer is open at all Valley locations on a space-available basis for an undetermined period.

Parents must make reservations in advance for up to four hours of care. Immunizations and other information are required.

Little Ranch Preschool – Tucson

Mill Avenue Prescool – Tempe

Phoenix Day Family and Child Learning Center – Phoenix

Welcome Back to Happy Trails School – Tucson

The Arizona Republic

Child-care subsidies for the working poor are a rational response to a real need. This fact collided with a state budget deficit that required tough cuts. The crash left Arizona’s child-care subsidy program on life support.

It should not be allowed to fade away.
As the number of children being served shrinks and the waiting list of eligible children grows, Arizona needs to take a look at what can be done to preserve this program, which shows a commitment to things that are highly valued in our society: hard work and family.

For people with good-paying jobs, child care takes a big, but unavoidable bite out of the family budget.

For low-income earners, the cost of safe child care – as much as $5,000 to $8,000 a year per child – can be out of reach. Without a subsidy from the state, these working families can be forced to give up work or put children in unsafe settings.

Since February 2009, when Arizona imposed a waiting list for working families seeking child-care subsidies, the number of children in the state program went from about 48,000 children to 31,900 this April, according to the Department of Economic Security. If the waiting list is maintained, the number served will drop to 27,600 by December, says Steve Meissner, director of communications for the DES.

By that time, the number of children who are eligible but are not allowed in the program will exceed 19,000. Currently, about 10,300 are on the waiting list, with an additional 4,000 eligible but not included on the list.

Bruce Liggett, executive director of the Arizona Child Care Association, says calling it a “waiting list” is a benign description that creates the impression of a “one child out, one child in” process.

In fact, for the working poor, the waiting list is really a turn-away list, he says.
Liggett says that if the number of children served continues to shrink, the program could lose federal matching money.

The state continues to face a deficit, and more tough decisions will have to be made. But preserving a program that includes a big federal match makes sense.

Moving children off the waiting list and into the program to maintain the current level of funding would be a good temporary solution. When economic times improve in the state, the goal should be to increase investment in a program that helps keep children safe while parents work.

TUCSON — Able-bodied, outgoing and accustomed to working, Alexandria Wallace wants to earn a paycheck. But that requires someone to look after her 3-year-old daughter, and Ms. Wallace, a 22-year-old single mother, cannot afford child care.

Last month, she lost her job as a hair stylist after her improvised network of baby sitters frequently failed her, forcing her to miss shifts. She qualifies for a state-run subsidized child care program. But like many other states, Arizona has slashed that program over the last year, relegating Ms. Wallace’s daughter, Alaya, to a waiting list of nearly 11,000 eligible children.

Now, in this moment of painful budget cuts, with Arizona and more than a dozen other states placing children eligible for subsidized child care on waiting lists, only two kinds of families are reliably securing aid: those under the supervision of child protective services — which looks after abuse and neglect cases — and those receiving cash assistance.

Ms. Wallace abhors the thought of going on cash assistance, a station she associates with lazy people who con the system. Yet this has become the only practical route toward child care.

So, on a recent afternoon, she waited in a crush of beleaguered people to submit the necessary paperwork. Her effort to avoid welfare through work has brought her to welfare’s door.

“It doesn’t make sense to me,” she says. “I fall back to — I can’t say ‘being a lowlife’ — but being like the typical person living off the government. That’s not what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to use this as a backbone, so I can develop my own backbone.”

As the American social safety net absorbs its greatest challenge since the Great Depression, state budget cuts are weakening crucial components. Subsidized child care — financed by federal and state governments — is a conspicuous example.

Despite a substantial increase in federal support for subsidized child care, which has enabled some states to stave off cuts, others have trimmed support, and most have failed to keep pace with rising demand, according to poverty experts and federal officials.

That has left swelling numbers of low-income families struggling to reconcile the demands of work and parenting, just as they confront one of the toughest job markets in decades.

The cuts to subsidized child care challenge the central tenet of the welfare overhaul adopted in 1996, which imposed a five-year lifetime limit on cash assistance. Under the change, low-income parents were forced to give up welfare checks and instead seek paychecks, while being promised support — not least, subsidized child care — that would enable them to work.

Please read this letter sent to the Secretary of State against-302

You must register to vote by July 26th at midnight in order to be eligible to vote in the Primary Election on August 24th.

Click here to register to vote.

Click here to request an early ballot in Maricopa County.

Click here to request an early ballot in Pima County.

For an early ballot in all other Arizona counties click here.