View PDF - Heinz Endowments

Low-income narents and children. The problem is worse for low-income parents, who are more likely
to work inegular hours when care is not available and to be less able to miss work when problems of care
arise, and for their children, who are more likely to be left for reasons of convenience and cost in those
forms of care that are less likely to promote academic success and appropriate social behavior.
Moreover, the number of low-income children needing care has increased because of increases in poverty in
general and increases in the number of low-income mothers, including single mothers, who must work
because of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TAIIÐ. Specifically, although the number of
elementary school-aged children
in Allegheny County has not
i
changed during the last decade,
the number of low-income
children has increased to
approximately one-third of all
;iå*äö:ihäääËäiri'fr1"
^òt ¡ Y¡cl
srrcr_\movrngtomunlcrDalrnes _il
ilEl--
å f][ Æ'ñf -
nonschool-hour care, but Geographíc targeting of nonschoolJtour services for low-ittcome clúldren is ineJfecsimply
targeting services at tive, since pockets oÍ poverty exisl evat vithín nnre affluent tlistt'icts.
impoverished inner-city
neighborhoods is not sufficient, because some school districts outside the City and even elementary
schools within otherwise more affluent districts have pockets of poverty. As low-income children
continue to spread throughout the County, geographic targeting of services becomes less effective and
unfair, so other strategies of targeting assistance must be adopted (e.g., subsidies or vouchers for
individual families, sliding-fee scales and agency subsidies or reimbursements, universal programs
available to all, etc.).
S¡,r¿psgor oF NoNscHoor, PRocRAMS
IN ALLBGHENY Cou¡qly
A recent (1999) study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh Office of Child Development of
nonschool-hour programs included a survey of programs and focus groups with parent participants in
Allegheny County. Approximately 370 center-type programs were identified that wôuld (but not necessarily
did) take school-age children during nonschool hours plus approximately 300 family and homebased
care locations. Of the 139 center-based programs profiled in this survey, approximately one third
were operated by social service agencies, approximately one fourth by private schools (94Vo Catholic
schools), 2l%o by other organizations (e.g., Citiparks), and l47o by religious groups. However, 4lfto of
programs were located in (if not operated by) schools, the majority of which were Catholic schools.