Five months before her son was born, Robin Patch placed her name on a waiting list at the UCLA Early Care and Education (ECE) program in anticipation of the demand for its facilities.
Now, almost a year later, her six-month-old son Shane stays at home with his father, and Patch is still a member of the growing pool of parents who are waiting for a spot to open at one of ECE’s three child care centers.
And though Patch, a fourth-year political science student, searches for affordable day care in between her classes, her search has yielded few results because of the lack of space in day care centers.
Among its three facilities, ECE has 257 spaces for children of students, faculty and staff, with 62 of those spots prioritized for faculty. The center is also waiting for a license to expand by 78 additional spots.
But the waiting list has more than 800 families who wish to enter, and admission is never guaranteed.
And though there are other care centers located in Westwood and Santa Monica, few centers offer scholarships or state grants to cover the cost and most centers have long waiting lists of their own.
Patch said finding tuition she can afford has been the biggest obstacle, and so she is looking to ECE for child care because it provides tuition assistance.
Rules and Regulations
Last January, Patch was offered a spot in ECE, but at the time, she was living in San Diego and was taking time off from school to look for child care.
Since Patch was not enrolled at UCLA when the spot was offered, she was deemed ineligible for the space, said Gay Macdonald, executive director of ECE.
The dilemma is that many student parents take time off from school to watch their children until they can find a child care facility, but ECE can not offer space to students who are not currently enrolled, Macdonald said.
Macdonald added that only one parent has to be enrolled at UCLA, and he or she must be enrolled as a full-time student to meet the ECE department policy.
The child care facilities are mostly funded by the state, so ECE must adhere to these rules, she said.
“(The center) gets an auditor once a year to make sure (it is) following the rules or the state takes away the money,” Macdonald said. “(We) wouldn’t be able to operate. (We) have to do what the state tells us to do.”
And though Macdonald said she feels sympathy for such cases as Patch’s, she said to make an exception for one person would jeopardize funding for the entire program.
“Even if we don’t agree with all the restrictions, it’s better to have the money than not to,” she said.
Another state restriction that has affected the way the program operates is that the center is only in service when school is in session.
Macdonald said the centers used to open a few days before the quarters began to help the children adjust to being away from their parents, but ECE had to stop because it was against state regulations.
“The rules are tightening up because money (has) tightened up. The government won’t pay for days ahead,” Macdonald said.
The waiting list and the wildcard
The ECE does not allow spaces to sit empty, but there are still applicants who find themselves never admitted, Macdonald said.
Spaces are age-designated and are not necessarily filled by applicants who have waited the longest on the list. Each facility has a certain amount of spaces for infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children and one center, the University Village Center, has spaces for kindergarten children, which none of the others do.
If an infant leaves, the center cannot fill the spot with a 4-year-old child, Macdonald said.
The waiting list is further complicated because applicants are prioritized by their incomes, with low-income applicants on the top of the list, Macdonald said.
Macdonald said someone could be first in line for a spot, but if an applicant with a lower income signed up for the waiting list, that applicant would have the first choice to the spot.
“When we have funding from the government we have to offer it to the neediest people,” Macdonald said.
She added that many families ask what their position is on the waiting list, but the center can not give an answer because waiting times vary, and some families are never offered admission.
Also, the Fernald Center, one of the ECE centers, reserves its spaces for families of faculty, which leaves less space for students, Macdonald said.
Families with children under the age of 3 have the hardest time looking for child care because few facilities on the Westside cater to infants, said Judy Bencivengo, the child care resource coordinator at ECE. She added that the ECE has only a limited number of spaces in each center for that age group.
Bencivengo counsels families on child care and where to find centers off campus. She encourages families to apply before and after summer, which is when child care facilities typically see a drop in numbers.
“Almost every conversation I hold with parents … involves time for the parents to cry. It’s a very difficult time,” Bencivengo said.
Funding
When students are able to get a spot at a child care facility, many are faced with the burden of paying for it, which can cost as much as a couple thousand dollars per month, said Gregory Uba, manager of resources and referral at Connections for Children, a child resource and referral agency in Santa Monica.
The agency is one of 10 in the county and helps to administer child care subsidies and hosts training sessions for providers. The agency has an eligibility list of more than 800 families looking for assistance to pay for tuition.
“It’s very difficult to find care for infants because it’s very expensive,” Macdonald said.
Because the center is one of the few child care facilities with state grants in the Westwood area, many students depend on getting a spot at ECE, Bencivengo said.
“Depending on how many applicants we have, we can pay half the tuition for 10 to 12 families … but it also depends on their incomes,” Macdonald said.
She added that some grants are designed specifically to support undergraduate students who are Pell Grant eligible.
In addition to state grants, the program is also funded through self-established fundraisers, interest from the center’s endowment account and alumni donations.
The money earned is also used to help students who are considered middle-income and who may not be eligible for state grants.
Middle-income families should expect to pay the full amount of tuition, since there are no traditional assistance programs for them, Uba said.
“They’re kind of the ones that get pinched.”
But with limited resources in Westwood, UCLA students and faculty are left with little choice but to wait for spaces to open up at ECE and other day cares.
“The county did a survey of child care supply and demand, and the Westside has a pretty good supply but the supply is based off (the) number of residents, and that doesn’t factor in the people who come into Westwood and bring their children in,” Uba said.
He added that some parents like to have their children close by their work, which causes the demand for child care in West L.A. to increase.
“The demand is a lot greater than the policymakers appreciate,” Uba said.
Patch continues to look for childcare in the Westwood area and met with the county last week to discuss tuition assistance, but she said she can do little else but to wait for an opening at the ECE.