By Melissa Landrau, Rise Magazine, July 11, 2022
When I had an active ACS case, I had homemaking services—this involved a lady coming into my home from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm and monitoring my children. I had no privacy. The homemaker would watch and feed my children. If I had to step out, she would accompany me. It was outrageous. I didn’t feel like I was the parent because she did everything for me. I would’ve rather had child care without someone in my home intruding and controlling everything.
When my case closed, I was given an ACS voucher for child care—but I wasn’t made aware that my child care voucher would only work until my kids hit the age of five (school age). Now my children are older and I continue to struggle with child care. I’ve applied for child care in any way I can, but it has not been accessible. I applied through HRA (Human Resources Administration), but was denied due to the fact that I’m a Supplemental Security Income recipient and I don’t get cash. I tried going through ACS, but that did not work either. They are unreachable—and when you finally reach them, they say that the only way to access their child care is if you have an open case. I tried paying out of pocket, but since the pandemic, child care hours are often limited to after school hours, closing at 6:00 pm. I hear from other parents about how hard it is to obtain child care, too. Some parents have to pay friends to provide child care, but the friends become unreliable.
There are too many barriers for parents to access child care and it impacts families. Lack of child care prevents me from getting a job to progress in life. It’s important to have child care after hours for those parents who can only get night or afternoon shifts, because in reality those are the shifts that are most available to families seeking work. Lack of child care also limits my schooling—I can’t get my full education because I have to leave early, rushing out to get my kids from school.
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