Federal Child Care Program In Transition

The local provider for the federal Head Start program, which provides child care services to low-income families, has withdrawn from the program, leaving some uncertainty for program participants in Altadena, Pasadena, and Glendale.

The Pasadena Star-News first reported that the Pasadena-based Center for Community and Family Services was withdrawing from the grant last week. 

Families who usually receive the child care are going without it this week, but will have it reinstated starting on Monday, according to Kenneth Wolfe, a spokesman for the federal Administration for Children of Families division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Some 1,397 children in Altadena, Pasadena and Glendale participate in the program, Wolfe said.  The is at 836 West Woodbury Road.

Next week, the program will be taken over by an interim provider, the Community Development Institute, which has taken over programs on an interim basis throughout the country, Wolfe said, including two other programs in Los Angeles County in recent years.

While families will continue to be serviced under the new provider, there are no guarantees for teacher and other staff who worked in the program under the Center for Community and Family Service (CCFS).  CDI will have the right to evaluate teachers and employees and terminate their employment, Wolfe said, though he stressed that CDI's priority tends to be to keep employees unless they are not doing an adequate job.

Wolfe attributed the change in provider to financial mismanagement on the part of the CCFS, and said a 2010 audit revealed the program was $5.1 million in debt.

Teena Smith, a spokeswoman for CCFS, told Altadena Patch the group was withdrawing from the program because of "unreasonable restrictions" placed on the organization.  She declined to go into further details.

"We feel it is not in our best interest to engage in a mud-slinging contest with Head Start," Smith said.

She noted that CCFS has administered the program for nearly 25 years - she said following the call she would be attending a lunch to say goodbye to Head Start child care employees she had known for years.

"This is very painful for us," Smith said.

As for when the program will have a permanent organization in charge of administering the program, Wolfe said there is no clear date.

"Sometimes it is a month or two, sometimes it is much longer," Wolfe said.