SOUTH DOS PALOS -- This year, a void in the county has finally been filled -- but for only 200 families.
For the first time ever, Merced County received $2.5 million in one-time American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money to start new Early Head Start programs, a federally funded program that provides high quality child care for children aged infant to 3 in low-income families.
Before that, many low-income families didn't have a choice when it came to child care options for their infants and toddlers, said Merced County Head Start director Linda Kaercher, a program administered through the Merced County Office of Education.
They could entrust their child to a babysitter, a relative or stay at home, she added.
Not having child care is one way the cycle of poverty gets perpetuated, Kaercher said. Parents need jobs to support their families, but they also need child care so they can work.
Today, 144 families receive home visits from Early Head Start child care workers, and 56 families take their children to one of three Head Start Centers in Merced, Delhi and South Dos Palos. The hope was to extend the program to all communities, but funding was only available for the three centers and home-care workers.
On Thursday, Rep. Dennis Cardoza toured the South Dos Palos Early Head Start Center, the first center created in Merced County.
It's located in a more rural section of the county, and residents lobbied to have the early child care program implemented.
"I'm pleased to see this program in Dos Palos," Cardoza said. "It's a community with a with a high need."
Renita Morris is one of those parents who depends on the facility.
Morris is unemployed and spends her day searching for work. She enrolled her 2-year-old daughter, Zuriah Knuckle, last month after she lost her job at Wal-Mart.
"Zuriah has more energy now and she's more talkative," Morris said. "Maybe it's because she's around other children."
Early Head Start is more than just a daycare program. It's also a one-stop shop for other needs such as health care, mental health care and crisis intervention.
Early Head Start and Head Start programs are based on the singular goal of eliminating poverty, Kaercher said. One way to do that is to make sure children are ready and prepared for school.
One study published in the 1990s showed the effectiveness of preschool programs by examining a group of low-income black students who attended preschool and a group who didn't. The study tracked them for 40 years to see if there was a difference in how their lives unfolded.
The High/Scope Perry Study showed that almost 20 percent of the children who didn't attend preschool were five times as likely to be arrested by 40. The group that attended preschool was more likely to earn more money and graduate from high school than the other group.
"Logic tells you that if children benefit from two years (of preschool), then that extra two years of child care will also benefit them," Kaercher said.
At those young ages, children develop their vocabularies, problem-solving skills, refined motor skills, curiosity and tendency for learning.
Without these programs, children may already be behind their peers when they enter kindergarten.
Money for the program runs out a year from now.
The hope is that Congress will fund the program, but nothing is certain, Kaercher said.
Until then, residents will wait to see if they'll get a chance to have their kids get an early head start.
Reporter Jamie Oppenheim can be reached at (209) 385-2407 or joppenheim@mercedsun-star.com.
E-Mail
Print
