Workfirst Welfare Recipients Facing Child-Care Dilemmas

Lisa Brown sees trouble ahead for welfare recipients with children.

Washington’s new emphasis on making sure welfare recipients find jobs means more demand for low-cost child care at the same time the state has reduced the amount it will pay for that care.

The state Democratic senator from Spokane is frustrated because several bills addressing the dilemma have died in the Legislature this session.

“Nothing’s moving,” Brown said, including a bill she sponsored that would have increased the state’s child-care subsidies and encouraged care providers to extend their open hours.

Sen. Jeanne Kohl, D-Seattle, sponsored several child-care bills, only one of which made it over to the House and is on hold in the Children and Family Services Committee.

“The conception of child-care being nothing more than babysitting,” combined with a conservative Legislature “that places a high priority on women being at home with their families,” has contributed to the unpopularity of the issue inside the Capitol, Kohl said.

But Senate Majority Leader Dan McDonald, R-Bellevue, said adequate funding for child care already is included in welfare reform.

Republicans have been “very judicious to see that it’s funded and it’s working,” he said of the child-care portion of WorkFirst.

Brown’s bill died in a Senate committee because it had come in too late to be scheduled for a hearing, said Sen. Jeanine Long, R-Mill Creek, chairwoman of the Human Services and Corrections Committee.

Republican Rep. Suzette Cooke of Kent, chairwoman of the Children and Family Services Committee, said Kohl’s bill is the only child-care bill in her committee.

Through the Appropriations Committee, chaired by Republican Rep. Tom Huff of Olympia, Cooke is trying to get the child-care subsidy raised - what Brown’s bill aimed to do.

“I have to convince Rep. Huff; I can’t tell you that he’s convinced,” Cooke said. “He was attentive.”

The state Department of Social and Health Services expects a 40 percent increase in the number of families needing child care in light of WorkFirst, said Rachael Langen, an administrator for DSHS.

Brown said investing in child care is the key to the success of WorkFirst.

“Hey, if we’re going to take care of potholes and prisons, we’ve got to take care of the kids,” she said.

Her bill was born of worry that many child-care providers won’t take children paid for by the state, leaving welfare and low-income families scrounging around for care. Some providers say they can’t afford to bring in welfare children when the state pays less than the market rate.

Brown said she’s worried a two-tiered child-care system - one of high quality for the financially secure and one of poor quality for the poor - will result from the current system.

Some providers say the state needs to do more than raise subsidies. Shannon Selland, who provides child care in her Spokane home, said Brown’s bill touches “just the tip” of the problem.

There also are the convoluted paperwork and delayed payments that come with state-supported customers, Selland said.

It’s too soon to know exactly what kinds of child-care needs will be carved out by WorkFirst, said Langen of the DSHS.

“In some ways, it’s too early because WorkFirst started in November, … (but) we’re guessing there will be a problem based on sheer numbers.”

Langen said the department will attempt to find out the child-care concerns of welfare and low-income families through a telephone survey this spring.

, DataTimes