—PRESS RELEASE—
Date:
Monday, August 15, 2011
Contact:
Terry Carter—(213) 700-5617
CCFS under scrutiny by Department of Education for failing to pay providers for three months.
Today, more than 50 local child care providers and the parents and children they serve lined the sidewalks and chanted with picket signs to protest the actions of Center for Community and Family Services (CCFS), which leave many area families at risk of losing their children’s quality child care.
CCFS is responsible for administering payments with independent child care providers who help low-income families to afford high-quality child care as they return to the workforce. But according to the Department of Education, CCFS used funds intended to reimburse child care providers for other purposes.
Despite growing public pressure, CCFS continues to ignore community members who are impacted by their mismanagement. At today’s event, a small group of providers attempted to deliver copies of bounced checks, overdraft fees, and late charges they’ve received because they haven’t been paid the thousands of dollars they’re owed. To stay open, they must be paid.
“I pick up two of the children I care for at 6:30 every morning,” explains Vanessa McClendon, a child care provider in Compton. “When my automatic deposit was a month and a half late, that meant I missed the automatic deductions for my car and car insurance payments. I didn’t even have enough money to pay the overdraft fees, let alone money for gas. I’ve had to borrow money from my 22-year-old daughter who has a part time job right now. It shouldn’t be this way.”
