memorandum OF support

Empire Justice Memo of Support: Child Care Subsidies for Parents who Work the Night Shift

A.6545 (Jaffee)/ S.4115 (Savino)

This bill would add a new subdivision to Social Services Law 410-w which would require that if a parent with a young child is otherwise eligible to receive a child care subsidy, and works the night shift, the local district should authorize a subsidy so that the parent can sleep.  Currently, this is a local option and 46 districts authorize care for these families.

Parents who work nights often need child care so that they can sleep during the day if their children are young and not in school.  Regulations currently permit, but do not require social services districts to provide a child care subsidy to financially eligible parents and caretakers who work second or third shifts and need child care for their young children in order to sleep. [1]   Most social services districts (46) do exercise this option and provide subsidized daytime child care for parents who need to sleep.  For those living in the twelve social services districts that do not provide this option, life can be very difficult as sleep deprived parents juggle their need to sleep with caring for a young child. [2]

Even among the districts that provide this benefit, the local rules vary among districts.  The majority of the districts, 32 in total, will fund 8 hours of subsidized child care for a parent who works second or third shift and needs to sleep during the day.  Two districts, Broome and Steuben, provide sleep care for less than six hours a night.  An additional 12 districts pay for six hours of sleep care.  Westchester County provides a child care subsidy for seven hours of sleep care.  This bill would make the 8 hour rule the standard for all counties.

This bill will assure that low income parents with young children who work the night shift and need child care to get adequate sleep, will be able to do so regardless of where they live.

Empire Justice Center strongly supports the passage of this bill.

End Notes:
 [1] 18 NYCRR § 415.4(c)(3).
 [2] The counties that do not authorize care for parents who work the night shift and who have young children ate: Chenango, Erie, Fulton, Genesee, Hamilton, Nassau, Niagara, Orleans, Saratoga, Schuyler, and Wyoming. You can find this information in Appendix A of our Patchwork of Policies report at http://www.empirejustice.org/assets/pdf/publications/reports/mending-the-patchwork-1.pdf.

05/05/11