Executive Summary: A letter from Pam Tatum

As the recession continues to wreak havoc on working families in Georgia, high quality child care centers and providers also are feeling the pain. High vacancy rates, more parents falling behind on payments and parents opting for less costly care all have contributed to substantial numbers of closings. Those child care centers and family child care providers that remain need all the support they can get.

At Quality Care for Children, we have stepped up our efforts to provide resources to help high-quality child care centers and providers survive and thrive – and support them as they continue to provide enriching and educational experiences for children. We know that 90 percent of a child’s brain development occurs before age three. We realize that in times like these, QCC’s role in supporting high quality child care is more important than ever.

“The child care system in Georgia is at big risk,” said Pam Tatum, CEO of QCC. “In response, we have continued to keep children’s needs as our top priority and have expanded our programs and increased our investment in quality child care.”

QCC takes a broad view of the child care system – taking into account parents, children, child care providers and the larger community – and works to strengthen each part.

Thanks to generous support from The Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation and individual supporters, QCC has been able to expand its Emergency Child Care assistance to reach a growing number of families who need short-term help paying for child care while they look for a job, recover from illness or face a crisis.

In addition, we are providing more scholarships for qualified child care providers to further their education with a Child Development Associate (CDA) credential. In the past year, 150 people have received scholarships to pursue this credential, which ultimately will result in better quality care for many children.

At QCC, we also have realized the need to address the business concerns of child care centers and family child care providers.

“One of the lessons we’ve learned from the recession is that child care programs have to succeed as businesses,” said Tatum. “The reality is that child care programs are small businesses –their financial stability and the quality of care the provide to young children are linked.

So QCC will soon launch a pilot program that will allow child care programs to use their group purchasing power to lower the costs of goods and services – food or cleaning services, for example. “When you can’t bring in more money, you need to find ways to make the money you do have go farther,” said Tatum.

Another way QCC helped children get the best care possible last year was by launching the statewide referral service – the first of its kind in the nation.

“It used to be that there were 14 different numbers you’d call in Georgia, depending on where you lived,” said Tatum. “You might live in one area, but have child care in another. People definitely see the benefits of this new statewide number. It has increased referrals and parents tell us they appreciate it.”

In this way, QCC is helping make the pieces of the child care puzzle fit together – by providing training and other assistance so programs can offer high-quality care; by helping providers and centers stay financially viable; and by ensuring that parents can find and afford good care for their children..