Language Barriers and Access to Child Care

Imagine for a second that you are in the market for child care. You have enjoyed raising kids full-time, but the mortgage isn't getting any cheaper, and you're itching to get back to your professional life. Having never used child care, you have many questions. How much will it cost? Am I eligible for any financial assistance? How do I know a quality program from a mediocre one? What if I only need care part-time, or at odd hours? What if I need a place that is appropriate for both my infant and my preschooler? What if I'm interested in care providers of a certain ethnic or cultural background?

Important questions. What if you can't ask them?

Sadly, this is the case for many parents of Limited English Proficiency (LEP) in Massachusetts. As Valora Washington and Mary Reed (authors of an editorial on this matter in today's Boston Globe) point out, the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care does not yet have a comprehensive system for working with LEP families, such as one noted at the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance. Check out the editorial "Speaking the Same Language".

Massachusetts' system of providing referral and financial assistance to families seeking child care can be difficult to navigate, especially with a language barrier. It would be easy for parents eligible for state subsidies to lose both them and their child care if they did not fully understand the requirements and stipulations. Slight changes in parental income, work status, or child attendance in child care could cause state funding to be lost. This not only presents a burden for parents in need of care, but also for the children whose routines and environments are disrupted. Continuity of care is of the utmost importance for young children, and being bounched from one care situation to another is not beneficial to the child. We also run into situations where parents might be eligible for state subsidies, but are not comfortable accessing them in the first place because they do not fully understand the forms and procedures. Or parents may not be happy with their initial child care placement, but not be able to communicate their needs to those who could assist them in finding a more appropriate one. In these cases children might end up in unlicensed or informal child care settings that are not held to state quality and safety standards.

Would you feel okay leaving your child in another's care if you didn't understand all that this entailed? I wouldn't.

All parents want the best for their children, and all parents deserve to have information regarding their child's care (including their responsibilites in contributing to its cost) explained to them in a language they can understand, in a setting where they can ask the kind of questions laid out at the beginning of this post. As "Speaking the Same Language" points out, this is an issue not only of supporting our children, but also our workforce. Not just in Boston or other urban areas, but statewide. Not only in English and Spanish, but in multiple languages. Not only for the poorest families, but for everyone eligible for state supported care. (FYI - high quality child care can run you $10,000 to $12,000 per year, for ONE child.) 

The full report on which today's editorial is based can be found here.