Creating new child care slots in mini child care centers: big bang for the buck in New Jersey - includes related information

Children Today, Jan-Feb, 1992 by Arthur J. Frankel, Ann Wilson, Florence Williams, Aletha Wright, Pat Townsend Collier, Mary Ann Mirko

Interested parties contacted their local Consortium member and received a comprehensive application which asked about their child care experience; their plan for either opening a mini child care center or expanding an existing program; their status concerning licensing, zoning, and code compliance; where they were going to find the necessary funds needed over and above the grant; and how they were planning on using the grant monies. Based on this information, 26 grants were to be offered, with project staff from the nearest Consortium member offering as much technical assistance as possible to complete the task.

Results

There were a total of 136 applications received. Of these, the first 82 plus a random sampling of the next 54 were analyzed using SPSS. It was very common that an applicant did not answer a question, or had multiple answers to the same question. Therefore, percentages did not necessarily total 100% .

Figure 1 compares the profiles of nonfunded applicants with those that eventually received a grant. Most of the applicants were directors of small for-profit centers, with more than a high school education and more than a year's experience in child care. While most of the applicants had identified a site as part of their plan, about one fourth of the applicants had not yet reached the point where the site had been approved for building and health/fire codes or zoning.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

The applicants who eventually became grantees were mainly directors of non-profit centers; only 4 of the 26 had been family day care providers. They tended to be currently involved in child care, but for a shorter period of time. The large majority of grantees had identified a site and taken care of building and health/fire codes and zoning issues at the time of application.

There were a large number of factors that had to be weighed in granting the available funds. Prior experience and motivation, and whether the applicant had a sound child care and financial plan, were of course taken into serious consideration. In addition, because the funds for the Mini Child Care Project were released well into the fiscal year (the monies had to be expended within the fiscal year), it was decided that successful applicants would have to already have met the necessary requirements for zoning, building, health, and fire codes, or at least be able to meet these requirements within a six month period.

It was expected that there would be many more applicants than grants awarded, and that a number of these would be appropriate for the grants but would not be able to receive them because of limited funding availability. These groups formed two types of "waiting list" control groups. Waiting List Control Group I were applicants who were turned down. Waiting List Control Group II were approved applicants for whom funds were not available at this time. It was hoped that these control groups would suggest whether awarding small grants with technical assistance was an important factor in supporting the increase in child care slots.