child care in cook county - Illinois Action for Children

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III. Family Dilemma: Finding Child Carethat Matches the Family’s ScheduleMost child care programs areavailable only during the daytimeon weekdays, but half of part-timeemployees and one-third of full-timeemployees work non-traditionalschedules that include at least someevening, night, or weekend hours.Many also work schedules thatchange periodically, sometimes withlittle notice. Some of the most commonor fastest-growing jobs requirenon-traditional hours, includingretail, food services, office cleaning,hospitals, and nursing homes. Ingeneral, low paying jobs are morelikely to require parents to worknon-traditional schedules than betterpaying jobs. 14 These work schedulesgive rise to one of the most intract -able problems facing many parentsseeking child care: relatively fewprograms accommodate parents’needs for evening child care, over -night care, weekend care, or careon a variable schedule.A.PROVIDERS OFFERINGCARE DURING NON-TRADITIONAL HOURSTable III-1 shows the number andpercentage of centers and homesin Cook County available for IllinoisAction for Children to refer parentsto for evening child care, overnightcare, weekend care, and careduring rotating shifts.In the table, several facts stand outabout the availability of child careduring non-traditional hours. First,only five (5) percent of centersoffer care during evening hours,and even fewer offer overnight orweekend care. In terms of bothnumbers and percentages, morechild care homes than centers offernon-traditional hours of care. WhileTable III-1.Cook County Providers with Non-Traditional Care*Source: Illinois Action for Children Resource and Referral Program, June 2009Percent of AllSuburbanListed CentersChicago Cook County Total or HomesCenters with Any Non-Traditional Care 88 139 227 20%Evening 27 29 56 5%Overnight 2 2 4 0%Weekend 12 9 21 2%Rotating Shifts 59 112 171 15%Homes with Any Non-Traditional Care 1,813 698 2,511 86%Evening 1,530 536 2,066 71%Overnight 101 41 142 5%Weekend 261 110 371 13%Rotating Shifts 679 299 978 33%*Here evening care is defined as care provided between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m., while overnight care is careprovided between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m.more than two-thirds of homes arelicensed to provide evening care,as with centers only a small percentageoffer overnight or weekendcare. 15 More centers and homesaccommodate families needing careon rotating schedules.The fact that homes are morelikely than centers to offer nontraditionalhours of care confirmsthe commonly-held belief that childcare homes are more flexible thancenter programs in accommodatingparents’ work schedules. In addition,the availability of homes inmore geographic areas offersgreater flexibility for parents: the2,511 home sites in Cook Countyoffering non-traditional hours aremore convenient geographically forparents than the 227 center sites.Noteworthy differences exist betweenChicago and suburban Cook County:72 percent of homes offering nontraditionalhours of care fall withinChicago, while suburban CookCounty outnumbers Chicago in thenumber of centers offering careduring rotating shifts.Table III-2 breaks down the numberof evening slots by type of care andregion. The North and Northwestregion of suburban Cook County hasthe fewest number of evening slots,while the South and SouthwestChicago region has the greatestnumber. In recent years, licensedevening capacity has been growing.Between 2003 and 2009, the totalnumber of evening slots in licensedchild care centers increased 342percent from 428 to 1,890. Duringthe same period, evening slots inlicensed homes rose 268 percent,from 3,820 to 14,076. While moreproviders are being licensed forevening care in recent years, it isnot clear how many actually provideevening care and for how manychildren they do so.21
The 2010 Report of Child Care in Cook CountyTable III-2. Evening Slots by Cook County Region*Sources: DCFS and Illinois Action for Children Resource and Referral Program, June 2009N & NW West S & SW CookN & NW C & W S & SW Suburban Suburban Suburban CountyType of Care Chicago Chicago Chicago Cook Cook Cook TotalChild Care Centers 52 78 300 171 297 992 1,890Licensed Homes 1,212 2,319 7,297 151 573 2,524 14,076Total Evening Slots 1,264 2,397 7,597 322 870 3,516 15,966*Includes those centers or homes licensed for a nighttime capacity by DCFS (nighttime defined as the majority of care between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.)and those licensed-exempt centers listing an evening shift with Illinois Action for Children.ALBERTA REYES: WORKINGMOTHER WITH PRESCHOOLER.INCOME IS $16,138 PER YEAR.Figure III-1.Percent of Children in Need of Non-traditional Hours of CareSource: Illinois Action for Children Resource and Referral Program, FY2009Each week Alberta works four10-hour shifts overnight, exceptoccasionally when business is slowand she is told not to come in. Wehave already learned that CCAPallows Alberta to afford a range ofcare types, including care in a centerand in a licensed child care home.018%13%Evening Care■ Chicago8%6%Weekend Care■ SuburbsHowever, Alberta’s work schedulepresents a barrier to using centeror licensed home care. Less thanone percent of centers and only five(5) percent of licensed homes inCook County offer care during herovernight work hours. As a result,family, friend, or neighbor careremains the most realistic optionfor Alberta.Despite growth in the amount ofcare provided during non-traditionalhours, families looking for childcare during these times have areduced pool of center and licensedhome slots available to them whencompared with families needingweekday, daytime care. Since nontraditionalwork schedules often gohand-in-hand with low-income jobs,families seeking child care duringnon-traditional hours are often challengedwith affordability issues aswell. It is not surprising, then, thatmany parents turn to relatives, friendsand neighbors to care for their children.These providers often offer amore flexible and affordable childcare alternative.B.REFERRALS GIVEN TOPARENTS IN NEED OFNON-TRADITIONALHOURS OF CHILD CAREParents sought child care referralsfor 11,762 children through IllinoisAction for Children in 2009. Sixteen(16) percent of these childrenneeded care during evening hours,and 8 percent needed child careduring weekend hours. Figure III-1gives the percentage of children inneed of evening and weekend carefor Chicago and suburban CookCounty.22
Page 1 and 2: child care in cook county:elements
Page 4: ContentsExecutive Summary . . . . .
Page 8 and 9: I N T R O D U C T I O NFamilies and
Page 10 and 11: IntroductionGABRIELLE AND SHAWN HAR
Page 12 and 13: B.TRENDS IN CHILDCARE RATESLike mos
Page 14 and 15: I. Family Dilemma: Child Care Affor
Page 20 and 21: In 2009, there were 1,456 full-time
Page 22 and 23: II. Family Dilemma: Access to Avail
Page 24 and 25: II. Family Dilemma: Access to Avail
Page 28 and 29: IV. Family Dilemma:Finding the Righ
Page 30 and 31: V. Public Dilemma: Who Needs ChildC
Page 32 and 33: V. Public Dilemma: Who Needs Child
Page 34 and 35: VI. Child Care Choices ofCook Count
Page 36: ConclusionFinding the right child c
Page 40 and 41: A P P E N D I X 1The Six Cook Count
Page 42 and 43: A P P E N D I X 2The Demand for and
Page 44 and 45: A P P E N D I X 3Sources for Data o
Page 46: 4753 north broadway, chicago, illin

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