Study: No downturn in child care economy

By Mark Millican
Dalton Daily Citizen

November 15, 2008 10:50 pm

— It doesn’t take long for some people to figure out retirement isn’t for them. For Donna Lambkin, it was exactly 31 days.
A state Teacher of the Year in Tennessee who taught children for 35 years in the Volunteer State, Lambkin retired on June 30. One month later, she was teaching pre-kindergarten classes at Precious Possessions Preschool & Daycare.
“We snatched her up before anyone else could get her,” said Holly Ridley, who with her husband Mark owns and manages the facility on Cleveland Highway. “We have four ‘Pre-K’ classes and they’re all free, and all our teachers are certified — just like Donna.”
“I like teaching Pre-K,” Lambkin said. “It’s like kindergarten used to be before No Child Left Behind required more academics and testing. ”
Precious Possessions employs 25 to 30, most full time, to watch over the 134 children who are enrolled in several age-group classes and nurseries. It earned a Center of Distinction award this summer from the Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning for exceeding standards of quality required by the state.
Whitfield-Dalton Day Care, a nonprofit facility that is also a Center of Distinction recipient this year, employs 40 primarily full-time individuals to help serve more than 200 children each day. The day care is funded through Bright from the Start, the United Way, lottery proceeds, parent fees and private donations, and houses both Pre-K and Head Start classes.
A study conducted by Bright from the Start, in conjunction with the University of Georgia and Georgia State University, found there are more than 10,000 licensed or regulated for-profit and not-for-profit early care and education centers in the state. The total annual gross receipts of the industry was estimated at $2.4 billion. Additional economic activity associated with the industry generates an additional $1.7 billion to the state’s economy, according to the study.
“This study has been ongoing," said Debbie Mann Rector, executive director for 33 years of Whitfield County-Dalton Day Care Center, which is nationally accredited by the National Academy of Early Childhood Programs. “It shows that the child care industry does have an impact on the economy. Also, sometimes people don’t realize what an impact a quality child care program is making with the young children that we serve.  Research shows quality early learning in children, along with working with the families will help children be more successful in school and, hopefully, more productive citizens. The parents we serve, whether working or going to school, have a peace of mind knowing that they are leaving their children in a quality program. This in turn makes them a better employee. It’s a win-win situation. A Perry Preschool Study shows that for every $1 spent on high-quality child care, taxpayers reap a return of $7.16.”
Rector said many of the parents utilize their child care services to attend school.
Dixie Kinard, a local Realtor who serves on Bright from the Start’s board of directors for the 9h Congressional District, said state requirements govern physical building and room size, nutrition and food, and programs and lessons, and mandate record-keeping on social and educational development. Personnel working at the centers also must pass educational requirements.
“The state has recently required more educational training for personnel and encourages everyone employed to continue to update their certification and further their education,” Kinard said. “The board feels like this will raise our standards and hopefully, our national ratings.”
Mary Thelma Norris is the director of Friendship House, a United Way agency that charges families based on their ability to pay. The agency serves 123 kids each day and employs 30 people.
“We are definitely a part of economic development,” said Norris, who has been director of the facility on South Hamilton Street for 23 years. “When people move into an area they’re looking for excellent education, quality health care and quality housing. We have to provide high-quality day care because we’re creating the product for the schools and underpinning the education system. The parents can go to the work force, school or to professional development of their own.”
Norris said employees of the nationally-accredited program also benefit.
“They can continue to go to school,” she said. “We have to have 15 (credit) hours per year per employee, and that’s just the basic training. We also have full-time college students who work part time, and part-time college students who work full time.”
Holly Robinson is the state director of Bright from the Start.
“It gives parents an opportunity to go to work with peace of mind,” she said of the facilities her agency licenses. “Without early care and education many of them would have to stay home (and care for the children). Their income adds to the economy of the state. And it also takes a tremendous amount of employment for kids to be in a safe environment.”
Robinson said the Whitfield Career Academy, where a Pre-K center is housed, provides opportunities for students.
“It encourages young people who are interested in early care and learning to do some work there, and see if that’s right for them as far as going ahead and getting a degree in that area,” she said.
Dalton High School houses a program for 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds that is accredited with the National Association of Education for Young Children. Only 12 children are admitted.
“We teach a curriculum for early childhood education,” said director Peggy Cantrell, “and if that’s a career path some students want to pursue, the pre-school program serves as a lab. Some think it is a pre-school for students, but that’s not the case. And we only have one faculty member who has a child enrolled.”
Rebecca Fulgham, director of the federally-funded Family Resource Agency of North Georgia, said her Head Start programs work specifically with families that are at or below the poverty level in a six-county area that includes Murray and Whitfield.
“What we see are parents who have been affected by back-to-work welfare reform,” she said. “For a parent who is working a minimum-wage job, they’re often worse off if they have to pay for child care. Head Start is a free program, but if parents have to utilize our services before and after our regular hours there is a small fee.”
Head Start is funded for 984 children in the six-county area and employs 237 people.
Ridley said her facility utilizes Web cams so parents can access their child’s classroom and watch them from a computer with Internet capacity. But the playground area, which is entirely covered with a grass-like carpet that gives a rubbery bounce to the kids’ play, is what she most likes to show off.
“It was planned for the University of Colorado, but do you see that streak running through it?” she asked. “That made it unusable for the college, so (the manufacturer) donated it to us. They told me it was worth $65,000.”

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By the numbers — child care

In Whitfield
27 — family day care homes, including 18 pre-kindergarten sites
19 — child care learning centers
1 — group home
7 — Head Start centers (ages 4-5)
2 — Early Head Start centers (ages 0-3)

In Murray
16 — Pre-K classes in public school
3 — Pre-K sites
2 — private providers
1 — Head Start center
1 — Early Head Start center



$32.7 billion — annual earnings of parents who access child care in Georgia
$2.47 billion — annual earnings of families with children under 6 in Northwest Georgia who access child care
61,203 jobs — in the child care industry in Georgia
13,500 jobs — in other market segments of child care in Georgia
19,204 children — enrolled in child care in Northwest Georgia
527 child care centers — in Northwest Georgia

Sources: Bright from the Start and Head Start

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