A friend of mine just back from China was telling me about their innovative child care system. The Chinese build old age homes adjacent to nurseries so that the senior citizens can provide day care for the children. Not only do the youngsters get experienced, loving care, but their teachers derive a sense of fulfillment from their own involvement.

In the process of researching the child care alternatives available in San Diego, I learned that you don’t have to go to the Far East to share this kind of experience. Now, through the Experienced Adults Serving Youth (EASY) program, adults 55 years and over are experiencing the delights of providing day care for youngsters aged five to nine years from 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. daily. Each center is located near public schools, so that the staff can pick up the children. Four such centers have opened in San Diego.

Their voices might quaver during “Jingle Bells” and they might be somewhat awkward at “London Bridges,” but these oldsters excel at spreading warmth and acceptance. The building at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, for instance, was donated, without charge to the program; it does not have the usual play equipment in the adjacent yard, nor does the child care room look like the affluent, toy-filled rooms of middle America. The emphasis here is on imagination and involvement. Art projects are made from egg cartons, pipe cleaners, odd scraps of material and lots of imagination.

What is unique about EASY is that it draws its clientele from low and middle income families. Unlike so many federally funded projects, welfare eligibility is not a prerequisite for enrollment. The parents whose children attend the EASY centers pay only S5.00 a week per child, an incredible bargain when compared with private profit making centers which charge as much as S2I.50 for extended day care.

One of the more encouraging developments in the entire child care situation has been the successful functioning of 16 children’s centers overall, and the addition of 5 mini centers which provide both full and extended day care for some 1300 children ranging in age from pre-school to sixth grade. Children’s centers were originally established here during World War II to provide child care for the large number of women employed in industry. Now these centers serve children from both low income and welfare families. The majority of children come from single-parent families in which the mother works. The centers are open from 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and are located either directly on a school site or immediately adjacent so that the children can go back and forth to school.

Although the children's centers and the mini centers service about 1300 children, there are still about 600 on the waiting list, “People don't really believe in women working. They tend to think that it’s your problem, you had the kids. Those people are living in another century. What they don’t understand is that it's cheaper to have kids taken care of now, than to pay for them later on welfare,” explained Dawn Morrison, director of the mini centers. “Why doesn't every single employer have child care information available for their workers? Sometimes I think the children’s centers and the mini centers are the best kept secrets in San Diego. The word about our services just isn’t getting out to families in need,” Ms. Morrison elaborated.

In order to handle all the children on the waiting list, at least six large centers would have to be opened. Part of the problem in opening more centers is, ironically, not one of money but of space. The greatest need for day care exists in Southeast San Diego, but the availability of rooms in this area is almost non-existent.

The crucial problem in child care seems to be finding slots for children just before school opens and after school closes, when parents are still working. While privately run day care centers are available, most of them handle full day care programs for preschoolers, and their fees are generally more expensive. The most flexible and unusual program for working parents, as well as one of the most inexpensive, is family day care (sometimes called foster day care) provided in family settings in private homes. Approximately 3000 children find loving day care in homes licensed by the County. Although the County does not determine child care costs, the fees are generally surprisingly inexpensive. Patricia Barker, president of the San Diego County Day Care Association, and a family day care mother, said that costs to working mothers generally run about $.50 an hour, although this varies somewhat with income, as well as for part time care. “What is unique about the family day care system is its flexibility. Family day care mothers will watch your child a little later if you have a dentist appointment. If your child is at a center, you .have to rush there, pick her up and take your child with you for your appointment.”

The County and the state have rather strict licensing requirements, and determine how many children can be placed in each home. “Each home must have adequate napping facilities, and that doesn't mean that it's okay for Johnny to sleep on the couch. There has to be a cot for him. a well supervised play area, a health test for both the “mother” and “father” providing the care, and if a toddler is present, there must be a fenced yard,” continued Patricia Barker.

Non-profit day care centers operated by churches, community groups, YWCA, .Girl’s Club, etc. provide excellent child care alternatives. Generally the services are provided at a substantial savings, the ratio of teachers to children is high, and the program creative. Most centers offer both full day and extended day care for children aged two years to ten years. Fees for full day care range from $70.00 to $80.00 monthly.

If your child is older and more self-sufficient, there are various after school programs which fill both recreational and child care needs. If you live near Girl's Club on 606 30th Street, or your daughter attends Memorial Junior High, Crocket, Logan, and Stockton Elementary Schools, your daughter can walk to the club and participate in after school programs for a $1.00 membership fee. If your daughter attends O'Farrell Junior High. Valencia Park. Gompers, Meade. St. Rita's Catholic or Barker Elementary Schools, Girl’s Club provides a pick up service. Girl’s Club has about 150 girls on the premises daily.

If you are within walking distance from a recreation center, your children can spend many interesting, supervised after school hours. The problem with these alternatives is that the leaders have no formal control over the children and cannot require them to stay at the center. Transportation from school to center is often a problem as well.

For more affluent families there is still another alternative — profit making day care centers. The program is often quite good, and the centers are understandably the most expensive. Generally, these facilities provide full time care for pre-school children only. Fees for this type of service run about $100.00 monthly.

It seems that the three groups with the biggest unmet need for child care are children under two years of age, children needing extended day care after school, and families with low income living in Southeast San Diego. At present, there are 18,000 children 12 years and under living in San Diego City from families with incomes below $4200 yearly;.55,000 children from families with marginal incomes ($4200-$7500). It is undetermined how many poor or near-poor parents would actually seek upgraded or full employment, education. or job training if accessible and quality child care was available. As of 1972, only 3,780 licensed child care slots were available through day care centers. (This figure does not include the family day care program.) 50% of these slots are offered by private profit making centers whose costs are just too prohibitive for families of this income.

What is the outlook for increasing child care facilities in San Diego? In November, the county of San Diego established a committee to investigate the needs of children in San Diego, among them the need for quality day care and to recommend the best means of establishing them. Arlene Saidman, a member of this committee and chairperson for the Child Care Task Force of the National Organization for Women, feels that the answer may lie in the establishment of federally subsidized on-site child care facilities. “Our Child Care Task Force is trying to talk to contractors to convince them to install day care facilities when they are constructing housing developments. The recreation room, the sauna and the pool are fine, but think how many more working women would buy into a development that had on-site day care for their children. I feel it’s very important for a child to stay in his own neighborhood, and these centers would answer that need. The other large problem is to lobby government to subsidize day care so that it’s available to all who need it, whether they can afford to pay for it privately or not.”

At present, there are only two or three housing developments with on-site child care. One of these. Gingerbread, located at 4890 Logan, is built right in the midst of a low income housing project in Southeast. Approximately 50% of the children come from the apartment complex itself, and the remaining slots are open to the community. This center is open 12 hours a day, all year round. Because it is a non-profit center, cost for a full day program is SI7.50 weekly. Gingerbread also provides bus service for children who do not live on site.

Magic Hours Child Achievement Center, 8330 Wesimore Rd., services two of Pardee's housing developments. Mira Mesa Homes and Mira Mesa North. Out of the 154 children who use the center daily. 130 come from these two developments, providing the only on-site, as well as the only pre-

Magic Hours provides both full day and extended day care programs. At present, the greatest demand is for the half day preschool and full day care programs, but Ruth Brewer, director, hopes to see more parents utilize the extended care. Magic Hours is a private profit profit making center, and charges $24.75 weekly for full care and $.75 an hour for extended care. “One of the focuses is to provide up-to-date educational programs without putting pressure on the child. It's very hard to keep down costs for this type of service, but I think we've managed to do it.” commented Ms. Brewer.

Aside from these, we were unable to locate any other on-site centers. Contractors in San Diego are still unaware of the need to build child care into their developments, and government is still unwilling to subsidize them. Until the needs of working parents are publicized, there will still be thousands of latch-key children who return home to an empty house after school, roam the streets looking for company, or spend the afternoon hours watching television. that is. if they’re affluent enough to afford one.

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. 4335 Van Dyke Avenue. San Diego. Clairemont Lutheran Church. 4271 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. Saint Stephen's, 5875 Imperial Avenue. Bay Vista. 4888 Logan.

List of phone numbers providing information on the child care program: For child care locations in your area call: EASY: 236-5765. Also: The Family Day Care Program, talk to Ms. Betsy Butterfield. 279-8300. North County residents call: 745-4200. Info, on mini-centers, call: 263-5800. Coordinator of Children's Centers. Ms. Jane Philips. 560-1383. For info on all child care facilities, call: 279-8300. Girl's Club: 233-7722. Gingerbread: 264-6725.