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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Offering Scholarships
Semillas 05:01 PM 03-25-2016
Hello,
I am new to this site and from what I have been reading, you all are a great resource. I am assisting my partner with her new family daycare (now in its 7th month) and I had a question that I was hoping you can give some guidance on. It's no secret that day cares can be costly to most families and one thing that is important to us is the opportunity to provide care to all families, no matter what your financial situation is. That being said, so any of you offer scholarships for low income families? Is there another avenue apart from offering scholarships to help these families receive the same care as those that can afford it? Obviously, we are a young daycare and this might not be feasible in the near future but we would definitely like to start planning. I look forward to hearing back from you. Thanks!
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Blackcat31 05:12 PM 03-25-2016
My state was awarded a grant to help families afford quality child care and allow programs to connect families to scholarships.

If a family chooses a child care home or center that participates in the QRIS star rating system we can have them apply for a scholarship to cover all their child care costs.

The higher rating a program has the higher the scholarship amount is.

My program is a 4 star rated program (max number in my state) and I have 2 families using a scholarship. Each child in both families qualified for $8,000.

I would contact your area Child Care Aware agency and ask about information about scholarships in your area. I would think they would be a great resource!
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Thriftylady 05:13 PM 03-25-2016
Originally Posted by Semillas:
Hello,
I am new to this site and from what I have been reading, you all are a great resource. I am assisting my partner with her new family daycare (now in its 7th month) and I had a question that I was hoping you can give some guidance on. It's no secret that day cares can be costly to most families and one thing that is important to us is the opportunity to provide care to all families, no matter what your financial situation is. That being said, so any of you offer scholarships for low income families? Is there another avenue apart from offering scholarships to help these families receive the same care as those that can afford it? Obviously, we are a young daycare and this might not be feasible in the near future but we would definitely like to start planning. I look forward to hearing back from you. Thanks!
I simply cannot offer scholarships. For one thing, every state has programs to pay for daycare for those who truly cannot afford it. All the parent has to do is go sign up, and choose a provider from the list of those who have agreed to accept state subsidy.

The other problem is that in a home daycare, you only have so many slots for children. Each child takes up at least one slot. Some take more depending on the state and how the ratios work in age groups. Each slot also comes at a cost to the provider. The provider must pay licensing, liability insurance, buy supplies and toys. Food is perhaps my biggest expense as a provider. If you take the kids anywhere there is cost with that.

So, offering free or discounted slots actually costs the provider money. And lets face it, most of us are operating our business (and yes it is a business), to make money not for it to cost us money.

If you are concerned about costs to parents, look into your state subsidy program for daycare. Licensing can tell you who to contact, usually it is DFS or whatever agency handles things like food stamps.
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Unregistered 06:12 PM 03-25-2016
Honestly, I don't want people who refuse to pay. I'm not saying can't afford, I'm saying refuse to put the money out. What do I mean, I'd rather have the single mom working two jobs to pay than the mom who's rich parents are footing the bill for her kids to be here. When there is a problem, the parents don't own it. Most of the time (poor or rich), these parents are the kind to just not show up come the end of month with no warning. They don't have to. I used to get a lot of children from the state. I don't know it works everywhere, but where I live the state doesn't pay all of it. I was getting about 80%, but if the parent didn't want to pay the rest there was nothing I could do unless the parents wanted to leave. You don't need to do scholarships, these parents already get aid. However, don't be surprised if you accept these families and regret it.
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NightOwl 06:36 PM 03-25-2016
Well, that was depressing.

I think scholarships for families in need is a beautiful idea. But unless you have plenty of money to spare, that's all it will be, an idea.

The hard truth is that we don't make a lot of money in this business, none of us will ever get rich. I cannot foresee a time when I will be able to offer free childcare to a family and it NOT negatively impact my own finances.

We have a childcare management agency here that will cover about 90% of the fees for qualifying families, but there's a 2 year waiting list. :/
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Thriftylady 06:39 PM 03-25-2016
Originally Posted by NightOwl:
Well, that was depressing.

I think scholarships for families in need is a beautiful idea. But unless you have plenty of money to spare, that's all it will be, an idea.

The hard truth is that we don't make a lot of money in this business, none of us will ever get rich. I cannot foresee a time when I will be able to offer free childcare to a family and it NOT negatively impact my own finances.

We have a childcare management agency here that will cover about 90% of the fees for qualifying families, but there's a 2 year waiting list. :/
A two year waiting list? Is this for state subsidy? I find that hard to swallow. I know here in my area, not a lot of home providers take it, because of the added expense of taking it. For instance in my county, it would cost me thousands to meet what the county wants. BUT, most all centers in the area accept it.
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NightOwl 09:55 PM 03-25-2016
Yes ma'am, minimum 2 years for state subsidy. Sometimes 3. It's terrible. That's why so many who cannot afford childcare end up unemployed in my area. I've seen many, many families wait on the list for so long that their kids are nearing preschool age before they get approval.
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Second Home 09:29 AM 03-26-2016
I don't take subsidy so I may not know 100% what is current happening . But I have seen in my newsletters that they are not accepting any new subsidy clients , they may have a waiting list but not sure how long it is . When they do open up for new applicants it is quickly full again .
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Thriftylady 10:12 AM 03-26-2016
Originally Posted by Second Home:
I don't take subsidy so I may not know 100% what is current happening . But I have seen in my newsletters that they are not accepting any new subsidy clients , they may have a waiting list but not sure how long it is . When they do open up for new applicants it is quickly full again .
That just amazes me. Here the parents go in to the office and talk to the lady, and have approval and a list of providers that day. Now if there is space at the provider they want may be an issue, but there are several centers, and parents always seem to find a spot. As I said, not many home providers take it here, they just make it so hard. They pretty much want home providers to be set up like a center to take it.
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Unregistered 12:12 PM 03-27-2016
Same here in Oregon. Wait lists go on and off.
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Febby 06:17 PM 03-29-2016
I've never seen anyone offer scholarships for their own child care clients because of the cost. I've seen a handful of college related child care scholarships, but I've heard they're pretty hard to get. If you could afford to offer scholarships for care, then that would be a really nice thing to do.

Our state child care assistance wasn't accepting new applications for a while either, but it's back on now. They do seem to adjust the maximum income levels pretty frequently, probably in relation to funding. I do know that depending on where you live, child care can still be really hard to afford if you make too much for CCAP.

Registered providers also don't get paid very much from CCAP, unless they've raised the rates since the last time I looked into it. I watch my nephews when their mom (who gets CCAP anyway) has to work outside her daycare's hours and wanted to see what state would pay me if I jumped through the right hoops. It was like $6/day. Not worth the paperwork. Certified providers and licensed center get paid more, but have to be STARS rated.
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Unregistered 06:31 PM 03-29-2016
My FCC home has offered limited scholarships for many years. I think many providers do the same but just don't think of them as scholarships.
Examples: 1 n/c day per week for 2 children for six months for a family with a terminal illness
2 n/c days per week for 3 months for a family when 1 parent's job got downsized and needed to job search
$5 off per day indefinitely for a parent that wanted their child here but couldn't afford the fee
So no full scholarships, but partial, often for a limited time. So far everyone was appreciative and I have had no regrets.
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Tags:financial aid, financial assistance, grants, scholarship
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