RochesterFirst

Rochester summer child care resources available

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — School is almost out, leaving some families wondering what they can do for summer childcare and what resources are available for them.

Summer childcare is something that parents have to think about before their child even starts the school year. Now that it’s getting closer to summer, there may be some obstacles that they will have to leap over.

Parents like Meredith Trotter say that childcare is not easy on the wallet.

“It was just difficult in trying to find how to navigate the cost, mostly was really the most difficult part,” Trotter said.

Being a mother of an 11-year-old, Trotter is not alone when it comes to navigating through the costs.

“Over 50 percent of families in Monroe County right now are eligible for assistance,” Director of Policies for the Children’s Agenda, Pete Nabozny says.

Nabozny says that the Monroe County Childcare Assistance Program is there to help, adding that families may want to take advantage of it.

“Eligibility has almost doubled in terms of families income eligibility and Monroe County has a lot of excess funds to apply for childcare and so a lot of people don’t know that,” Nabozny says.

Another large cost that families may not think about is transportation.

“I do transport her to childcare, so I drop her off and pick her up,” Trotter says. “So it just means me being flexible with my hours.”

While some families do have the ease of work flexibility, Nabozny says that some households still may not have the means to transport their children to their summer childcare program.

“About a quarter of households in the City of Rochester don’t have a car and that’s a pretty big chunk of the city, right,” Nabozny says. “So that can be a real barrier.”

He adds that the county is working with state officials to develop a transportation system that will help families with any transportation barriers they may face.

Another option for families who may not have childcare set up, Nabozny says, is to have family, friends, and even neighbors be approved as a legally exempt childcare providers, where they could be compensated.