0 to 5: Quest for quality childcare

CINCINNATI -- What if you had to turn down a promotion just to be able to continue to afford quality childcare?
    
For those who work, affording quality childcare can be a difficult equation that forces parents to get creative.

"I've definitely sacrificed needs for myself and for my house," said Erica Boggs, a married mother of four and a hair stylist.

Two of her children are in school and two are in a home daycare. She and her husband are self-employed and they get childcare vouchers that supplement the cost of daycare.

Tracey Rowe, Vice President of Programs, says 76 percent of families at their Cincinnati Early Learning Centers (CELC) receive some support through the state voucher system and some parents are having to do the unthinkable to maintain that support.

"Some parents are turning down promotion opportunities in order to continue to receive the services that they need for assistance in paying for their childcare," Rowe said.

Earlier this year, the income guidelines shifted in Ohio, where a single parent with one child can only earn $8.82 per hour and be eligible, according to Patti Gleason from CELC.

"If you're like a dollar outside of that income guideline, then all of the sudden it's assumed that you can afford to pay for it but you really can't," said Boggs. "You make a dollar over, and that dollar is just not enough."

"I had to cut my days back," Boggs said. "So, right now, I only work like three days a week."

In 2010, parents paid $7,750 a year on average for an infant in a center  in Ohio. That's around $650 a month.  And costs were around $6,000 a year for pre-school age children according to the National Association for the Education of Young Children .

"Some of our families struggle. Our middle income families tend to struggle the most. Childcare is very expensive," Rowe said. "Taking a child from birth to 5 through a childcare center is a college education in many circumstances, especially when you look at the high cost of providing infant care."

Even a three-star rated center like CELC isn't full because people can't afford it. Sallie Westheimer heads up 4C for Children , a non-profit that rates childcare facilities in Ohio and Kentucky.

"I want to emphasize that the early years are the time that children are building their foundation for life-long learning," Westheimer said. "We often-times spend a lot of time thinking about the right college or even the right high school, thinking that is helping a child plan for the future but really these early years are critical. So when parents think about where to cut corners, this is not the time to cut corners."

Jasmine Nicholas and her husband didn't want to send their children to daycare. But, when their daughter Penny was a baby, they both worked, so they had to get creative.

"Luckily we had the types of jobs where we could work out the hours to where I was home when he was at work and he was home when I was at work," said Nicholas. "It worked great because she was always with one of us, but we were like ships passing in the night."

Then, they decided it was time for Jasmine to stay home full time with their 7-month-old son while their 3-year-old is in preschool.

"It's definitely tight. It is not something that we are easily affording. But it feels worth it, especially after she started a few weeks and we saw the change in her," Nicholas said. "I really want my kids to have a good childhood. That's really important to me. The good times in my childhood... I still think about them, daily."

Westheimer from 4C says the bottom line is parents are their children's first and best teacher. So, it isn't necessary to send your children to an Ivy League preschool. A quality preschool will have low teacher to student ratios, a curriculum or planned learning environment and teachers with higher levels of training in early childhood education.