Not exactly childs' play

Child-care needs at Assembly produce an annual headache

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE — Deb Davies has hired someone to care for the children of participants in this summer's 216th General Assembly in Richmond, VA.

Sort of.

A day-care center at Second Presbyterian Church in Richmond, about four blocks from the convention-center site of the Assembly, is willing to take in a few kids if necessary. If some of its regular clients pull their kids out for summer vacations.

Davies usually only has to find places for a handful of children, so she thinks these ‘fluid' arrangements may be sufficient. That's a relief, because only seven weeks remain before the Assembly begins, and her options are closing.

Finding competent care for the children of commissioners, visitors and staff isn't as simple as it sounds. For Davies — who also has to find rooms for more than 1,000 guests, see that the sound system in the Assembly hall works, make foreign visitors comfortable and take care of hundreds of other details — making child-care arrangements is one of those details the devil is in. And they can fall through at the last minute.

“Our preference is to find an existing facility,” Davies says, pointing out that the days of informal, volunteer child care are over and that licensed providers must be lined up, for safety reasons. The thorny part is finding such a provider that can take only a few kids for only a few days.

“The good child-care centers all have long waiting lists,” she says, “and few are able to guarantee that they'll take even a couple of kids at any given time.”

Last year, Davies, an assistant stated clerk who serves as manager of Assembly services, thought she had a fool-proof plan for child care on-site — which would make it possible for parents to drop by and check on their children, or to join a kid for lunch, rather than having to walk several blocks or drive across town. The convention center in Denver was licensed by the state and the city. It even had a mini-toilet especially for toddlers.

While a number of families considered enrolling their children, there were never more than a couple of kids in need of care. So, the provider called the whole thing off, leaving a few Presbyterian parents in the lurch — and Davies hastily throwing together a plan B.

Plan B was workable, but the only available site was across town. Parents weren't comfortable about putting small children in a van to be taken to an unfamiliar facility miles away, and Davies, frankly didn't blame them.

But what about the parents who choose to bring their children, or have no choice but to come with kids in tow? How family-friendly should the Assembly be? Should the denomination be responsible for providing child care, whether two kids show up, or 20?

“The arrangements have varied over the years, depending on what's available at different Assembly sites,” says Davies, who, often, ends up working out the details with parents on a case-by-case-basis.

Sometimes a commissioner pays to bring a sitter along and pays for room and board while the Assembly pays the daily child-care fees.

“Parents get pretty creative” about working things out, she says. “In fairness, sometimes parents say this is a chicken-and-egg-thing. They don't bring their children, or don't get elected as commissioners, because of the nature of the Assembly … where child-care options are limited, at best.”

Making the Assembly more family-friendly would mean more than just adding babysitters. It would also require changing the schedule allow for more free time, and organizing activities for families with children.

Kathleen A. Waters, the executive of Susequehanna Valley Presbytery, would like to see such changes. The mother of two — a 9-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl —would like a more family-friendly assembly. She travels a lot in her work and doesn't like being away from her kids.

She thinks the Assembly should pay for child care for those who need it.

OGA says a rough cost estimate would be $5680 to accommodate a minimum number of 20 kids at any given time is about $4 per hour per child. The total number of childcare hours needed for a commissioner attending every business session would be about 71. But those figures are variable, given the hourly costs or the number of ‘paying' parents who might register to use it.

The estimated costs for the Assembly this year in the per capita budget is $1,750,000, so another $5,000 sounds like small potatoes.

“True, the General Assembly is a business meeting,” concedes Waters, one of the parents left in the lurch last year when plan A folded. Unwilling to bus her tiny daughter, Hannah, to a day care facility beyond walking distance, she simply toted the child around, with a sign pinned to her shirt complaining that the Assembly didn't put much priority on kids.

“Thank God it wasn't the ‘Year of the Child,'” she says now. “I know it costs money. I know the GA can subsidize it.”

She says she's willing to kick in some money, and she suggests that all families with kids ought to be put in the same hotel that might be adapted to provide specialized services to meet their needs. She's bringing her nine-year-old to Richmond and he'll be supervised by a babysitter – along with two other girls -- that several parents are paying to bring to the Assembly to avoid the chaos of last year.

However – even if subsidies come through – just as it's hard to find a day-care facility willing to take kids for just a few days, it's also hard to find licensed providers willing to work on site, Davies says, even when that wouldn't run afoul of state regulations.

Before 1992, child care was the responsibility of local host committees, which rounded up volunteers to watch children while their parents worshipped or worked.

But increasing awareness of child abuse, stricter regulations and sensitivity to liability issues have ended that practice, not just at the national level, but in many local congregations. Licensing requirements vary from state to state.

“If we're going to provide child care,” says Eric Graninger, the PC(USA)'s general counsel, “it is going to be provided in a safe and professional way. It is important that it be high-quality and safe.” He feels more comfortable with a local provider, rather than have the denomination improvise on child care for a few national conferences a year.

Which is why Davies spends hours on the phone, trying to find solutions. What works for one set of parents doesn't suit another. And, as the situation in Denver demonstrated, even the best-laid plans can fall through at the last minute.

“We do this on a case-by-case basis,” she says. “It's difficult to set hard and fast rules. It really does depend on the options the family has.”

Reimbursement of child-care expenses runs about $30 a day, depending on the market in the host city.

PC(USA) staffers Jerry Van Marter and Eva Stimson, employees of the Office of Communication, have hired the teenage daughter of another staff person to supervise their twins, now 12, during Assembly meetings. The sitter pockets the $30 per child per day fee, while her housing costs are paid by her mother. Van Marter and Stimson pay for food for the sitter and the kids.