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Study: Childcare Subsidies Are Declining

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A new study says that the availability of child care subsidies in Monroe County has declined over the last seven years but Monroe outpaces similar counties in providing that support to low-income working families.

That according to the study done by CGR, which shows that from 2007 to 2013, the number of subsidies in Monroe County decreased by 17 percent to just over 6,400.  Subsidies declined in 38 of 57 counties outside New York City and the average decrease was 27 percent.

CGR officials say that Monroe County served a higher share of potentially eligible children than many other counties including Erie and Onondaga. But  they also say that Onondaga has been increase its child care subsidy in recent years.

Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks says that the state already mandates a certain amount of child care subsidy that the county has to provide, and she says Monroe County is providing 400 percent over that amount. Brooks says county provides a higher level of subsidy than any other county in New York. She says the county could provide more help if the state gave counties the ability to be more specific in how they provide the subsidy. Most of the child care subsidies come from the federal government.

CGR and the League of Women Voters chose child care subsidies as the focus of their research this year,  funded out of the Beatrice Bibby Endowment.

The League, CGR and the Children’s  Agenda are sponsoring a forum to talk about the report’s findings on November 13, 7pm at Asbury First United Methodist Church on East Avenue.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.