Planning Frameworks
For restoration of child care to succeed and to
support the overall recovery of Orleans Parish, the plan should
include strategic allocation of resources and should include a
carefully designed program of technical assistance and
professional development.
Strategic Allocation of Resources
There are several possible strategic frameworks for guiding
child care restoration:
A. Helping Families
B. Targeting the Most Vulnerable Families
C. Building on Early Childhood Program Strengths
Funding agencies could assist all child care centers across the
parish that fit in one of these frameworks, or concentrate
assistance to centers that are located in neighborhoods, wards,
or planning districts that fit other redevelopment strategies,
such as restoring socioeconomic diversity or reducing future
damage (wind or flood) risk. Thus, a strategy could be to build
on program strengths in predominantly low-income neighborhoods,
or to target vulnerable families in low-damage-risk planning
districts.
A. Helping Families
It may be appropriate to make initial choices about where to
restore child care facilities on the basis of where families
with young children are likely to return or relocate. Two
relevant criteria are (1) availability of housing in each
planning district and (2) proximity of open child care centers
to open elementary schools (Golden & Turner, 2005).
B. Targeting the Most Vulnerable Families
New Orleans’ most fragile families – those “with no financial
assets, little work experience, limited education or skills,
poor health, or disabilities” – are least likely to recover from
Hurricane Katrina (Turner, 2006, p. 2). If the goal is to use
limited child care restoration funds to improve the
opportunities for low-income families with young children, it
may be appropriate to give priority to centers that currently or
previously accepted child care vouchers, the federally funded
subsidies for low-income working parents.
An alternative approach for targeting vulnerable families would
be to focus on centers, located in low-income neighborhoods,
that do not or did not accept vouchers, on the premises that
subsidy-participating programs are already receiving one form of
public subsidy and that because of child care subsidies, child
care is actually least affordable for moderate- and
middle-income families. As Brandon, Maher, Guanghui, & Joesch
(2004), noted, early childhood education “is most affordable
either for upper-income children whose parents can pay for
high-priced learning opportunities or for low-income children
who qualify for deep subsidies through Head Start, state
pre-kindergarten, or CCDF vouchers. Children from moderate- and
middle-income families end up with limited options for
affordable, top-quality early learning experiences” (p. 5).
C. Building on Early Childhood Program Strengths
If the goal is to build upon early childhood program strengths,
it may be appropriate to allocate resources first to open
centers in all planning districts.
Status as a Head Start or Early Head Start program is an
alternative, or additional, criterion for this strategic
framework. The Urban Institute recommends that Head Start and
Early Head Start programs receive top priority for restoration
assistance, arguing that those programs meet four key criteria:
(1) large scale and high impact, (2) comprehensive program, (3)
high quality, and (4) responsiveness to parents as well as
children (Golden, 2006). Figure 6 shows locations of Head Start
programs and status as open or closed in the planning districts.
Another possible criterion for early childhood program strength
is proximity to an open school with grades PreK, K, or 1,
because transitions from early childhood programs to schools can
be challenging to all young children and their families. The
children and families of Orleans Parish are extremely vulnerable
to new disruptions in their day-to-day lives. Being able to
enroll four- or five-year-olds in schools that are near homes
and the child care centers which the children previously
attended will simplify schedules and transportation for these
fragile families. This would enhance the “family friendly”
nature of particular neighborhoods.
Technical Assistance and Professional Development
Owners of child care businesses are likely to need significant
assistance in applying for financial aid and complying with
requirements for the aid.
Beyond that, the owners and directors of these fragile small
businesses will need long-term help to recreate or enhance the
quality of their curricula and the overall qualifications of
their staff. The challenges to providing high-quality early
childhood education are immense in every U.S. community and
incalculably more difficult in the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina. The quality rating system for early childhood programs
in development now in Louisiana could provide new incentives for
child care programs in the Katrina disaster area to strive for
greater quality.
However, two new, serious challenges for early childhood
professional development in the Katrina disaster area are early
childhood mental health and emergency preparedness. Unless the
early childhood workforce in Orleans Parish is prepared to
support the long-term social-emotional recovery of young
children who experienced Katrina, and is ready to meet future
devastating disasters, the Katrina recovery effort will have no
guaranteed long-term effect on the learning potential and mental
health of the young children of Orleans Parish.
Recommendations
The authors recommend that funders choose Strategic Framework C,
Build on Early Childhood Program Strength, and assist selected
centers with A licenses (or former A licenses) in
low-damage-risk neighborhoods, targeting centers that are in
elementary school areas that have disproportionately low child
care-to-school capacity ratios.
We recommend that funders provide financial assistance for
repair and reconstruction, combined with mandatory technical
assistance and professional development designed to bring the
centers to good or excellent quality as defined by the state’s
quality rating system, to individual early childhood programs in
low-damage-risk neighborhoods.
46 Blackjack Rd. / P.O. Box 6013
/ Mississippi State, MS / 39762 / tel. 662-325-4836 / fax 662-325-5436
© 2004- Mississippi State University
