DEMAND FOR DAY CARE CONTINUES TO INCREASE

Economics and single parenthood compel more and more women to seek employment outside the home. Subsequently, there has been a marked increase in demand for quality, licensed day care service.

Deanna Long, licensing supervisor for the Division of Family Services in Cape Girardeau, said day care caseloads at her office have "doubled and tripled" in the past decade.

Long said the number of day care providers also has increased steadily to meet the challenge of greater day care demands, resulting in larger caseloads for her Southeast Missouri office.

"Cape Girardeau County has increased the number of licensed facilities dramatically in the last two years," she said. "In the past several years we have done one major work reduction after another in which we reduce procedures in licensing."

Long supervises five licensing representatives, who serve 18 counties in Southeast Missouri. New licensing regulations have been adopted, which allow the representatives to keep up with increased workloads.

Long said that licensed day care providers previously were required to be relicensed each year, and their facilities were inspected every two months. Now, licensing is required every two years and inspections are held only once every six months.

Also, new licensing rules went into effect this year that require, among other things, that licensed day care providers have on-going training.

"They have to take 12 hours of training every year," Long said. "There's also a new level of licensing a group day care home, which is a merger between day care centers and day care homes."

Long said day care homes provide care for up to 10 children, and group day care homes have 11 to 20 children. Day care centers, the other licensing category, generally are larger than group day care homes.

The licensing supervisor said the increase in working women is a trend that's not likely to change soon. She said more mothers enter the workforce to provide additional income for the family. The number of single mothers also has increased dramatically during the past few years.

"The biggest change we're seeing is the increase in demand for infant-toddler care," she said. Long said to meet that demand, Missouri over the years has lowered the minimum age of children allowed in day care from 2 years to 6 months.

"The biggest demand right now is infants," she said. "But we don't see that many facilities licensed for infants and toddlers."

Long said that out of 18 licensed day care centers in Cape Girardeau County, only six provide infant-toddler care for children under 2.

"The reason I think there aren't more is because that age group is the most labor intensive," she said. "Infants and toddlers require almost constant care."

Infant and toddler care also is the most expensive for parents, Long said. "Day care for all ages will cost from $7 to $25 a day, with infant-toddler care the most expensive," she said.

Long said the United States is unique among industrialized western nations in that the federal government doesn't subsidize child care for working parents. But help for some parents now is available, thanks to new programs such as the Child Care and Development Block Grant, which provides federal child-care funds to families in need.

"It's based on income but it's much broader than other existing assistance programs," Long said. The object of the grant program is to "increase the availability, affordability and quality of child care," she said.

"An adjunct to that is training for providers and grants to current providers to expand services and meet licensing standards," she said.

Long said other factors that have contributed to increased demand for licensed day care are harder to gauge.

She said that parents today are more concerned with assuring their children are in a licensed day care facility, as opposed to simply dropping their children off at the babysitter's down the block.

"Parents are more educated today and know better what they want," she said. "They see themselves as consumers with rights; the right to expect a certain level of service for their money."

Long said parents consider a day care license as a measure of credibility. She said she would like to see more unlicensed providers inquire about licensing to help meet the demand.

"I really think society has changed," she said. "We're all more mobile. We don't have extended family support systems, so we turn to regulated facilities to get some degree of credibility."

The ultimate responsibility for children's welfare rests with the parents, Long said.

"The government can never substitute for parents' own concern for their children's welfare," she said. "Any chance I get, I tell parents they have to see a provider as a partner in the care of their child. They should check references, they should go look at the day care facility and visit it often and unexpectedly."