ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 1, 1995 TAG: 9512010006
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
A CHANGE IN state management of federal grants is having serious repercussions for some of Virginia's working poor. New guidelines require parents to pay 10 percent of their gross income to help cover the cost. The change also threw some parents out of the income eligibility range.
This summer, 3-year-old Trei Crowder was diagnosed as hyperactive. He was destructive, constantly lashing out, hitting things, banging things.
A doctor recommended that his mother, Eva Crowder, place him in a controlled environment. Rather than medication, he prescribed Head Start - a federal program for preschoolers from poor families.
Crowder enrolled Trei at the Hurt Park Head Start in Southwest Roanoke this fall. The center operated a full-day program, which allowed Crowder to keep working as manager of a convenience store. Her fee was paid in full by federal funds.
Trei "improved 100 percent," she said.
But by Jan. 1, he may be dropped from the program, a casualty of Gov. George Allen's decision to shift the management of federal funds for all-day Head Start programs from the Virginia Council on Child Day Care and Early Childhood Programs to the state Department of Social Services.
State officials said the change was made because, due to budget cuts, the council did not have enough staff to continue to administer the federal funds.
The move put funding under new guidelines that require parents - most of them living at or below the federal poverty level - to pay 10 percent of their gross income to help cover the cost.
The change also threw some parents out of the income eligibility range. When funding was under the council's management, only parents whose income is 75 percent or less of the state median income qualified for the subsidy - which, at that time, paid the cost of the program in full. Under the Department of Social Services, only parents whose income is 50 percent or less of the median income qualify.
For a family of four, the median income is $47,732. So under the old guidelines, a family of four earning less than $35,799 qualified. Now, only those earning less than $23,866 qualify.
Crowder no longer qualifies for the subsidy because her income is too high. And even if she did, she said, she couldn't afford the 10 percent payment - about $165 per month in her case.
Head Start administrators, for now, have allowed Trei to stay in the program.
State social services administrators and child care council officials have portrayed the change as positive, pointing out that requiring parents to pay frees up more money for thousands on a statewide waiting list. And they have said that, with the exception of concerns raised by Head Start parents in Roanoke a month ago, the change has been smoothly implemented across the state.
Not quite.
A single mother in Radford quit her job and went on welfare because she could not afford the 10 percent payment. A Montgomery County couple, both working, also couldn't afford it. The mother quit work to stay at home with the children.
In Norton, Appalachian Regional Community Head Start shut down its full-day program because nearly all of the families who had been receiving the service were found ineligible for the subsidy. ARCHS no longer could afford to keep the program operating a full day. Parents will hold a news conference today to protest.
Several social services departments around the state are ignoring the change and distributing subsidies without requiring the 10 percent payment.
"You don't do this to people who are working hard to get ahead," Crowder said. "It's penalizing people who are trying."
In Roanoke, 33 of 100 children enrolled in all-day Head Start programs administered by Total Action Against Poverty have been deemed ineligible because of income, work hours or failure to file paperwork. (Under new guidelines, all-day Head Start block grant subsidies cannot be used for care after normal work hours, which had been allowed under the old guidelines.)
Eleven children were pulled from the program because their parents could not afford the 10 percent payment, said Katie Weddington, TAP's supervisor of family services and parent involvement. And some of the families who will be required to make the 10 percent payment will fall back below the poverty level to do so, she said.
In Head Start programs administered by the New River Community Action agency in Christiansburg, the number of children who benefited from all-day subsidies dropped from 70 to 25 because parents were found ineligible or couldn't afford the 10 percent payment.
"When the council handled [the funds], everything was taken care of," said one agency employee, who asked not to be named. "It worked just fine for us. There were no problems.
"But this has just been a fiasco."
Enrollment at all-day programs operated by the Appalachian Regional Community Head Start has dropped from 52 to four because families were no longer eligible for the subsidies, said Bill Bowen, executive director. The agency, which serves families in Norton and in Wise and Dickenson counties, used parents' subsidy funding to help pay staff to work a full day.
With the bulk of parents ineligible, "we've had to scrap the program," said Bill Bowen, executive director.
"We've been operating for three years in perfect harmony, so to speak, serving our kids, and we didn't have any problem," Bowen said. "We weren't making any money, but we were breaking even. We weren't going in the hole.
"I just hate that this is happening."
Del. Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, D-Roanoke, said the new policy has hurt the poorest families. He is planning to propose a legislative remedy during the next General Assembly session. The legislation would prohibit the Department of Social Services from charging the 10 percent payment, he said.
Social services administrators have said that requiring the 10 percent payment will mean the state will pay less per client, freeing up more money to serve others.
"We have about 9,000 to 10,000 people on a waiting list statewide who are eligible, anxious to pay the 10 percent fee and can't get any help at all," said Paula Mercer, child day care specialist for the state Department of Social Services.
But for some parents, 10 percent of gross income covers the bulk of their full-day Head Start costs, with the state subsidizing a very small portion.
One Head Start family in Roanoke is having to pay $187 of its $200 monthly fee under the Department of Social Services guidelines, Weddington said.
Social services initially had tried to begin requiring the 10 percent payment Oct.1, only a week or two after notifying parents. That has since been extended to Jan.1 to allow for transition.
Weddington will go to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' regional office in Philadelphia on Dec. 11 to meet with state and federal officials to discuss the impact of the changes.
Among her questions for HHS: Does Virginia have written approval from the federal government to institute the change in management of funds? Does the change violate the plan that the child care council submits to the federal government on how it will use funds? Was HHS aware that shifting the funds from the child care council to the state Department of Social Services meant that subsidy recipients would be paying 10 percent of their gross income to help cover the cost?
And how does this fit in with federal proposals to hand block grant programs such as this one over to states to manage?
"This is certainly a perfect example of what can happen when they allow that," Weddington said.
LENGTH: Long : 138 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff. Because of state eligibilityby CNBchanges, Eva Crowder may not be able to afford Head Start for her
3-year-old son, Trei. color.