MAKING A DIFFERENCE : Stone Soup: Recipe for Reliable, Low-Cost Child Care

Parents seeking trustworthy after-school care for children age 6-12 often meet with utter frustration, especially if they don’t have money for top-flight private care. Statewide there are only enough child care spaces to accommodate one in five school age children, and what is available is often not affordable. Without dependable, inexpensive, supervised care that’s conveniently located, these working parents are forced to make painful choices between leaving their children on their own before and after school, during holidays and school vacations.

Stone Soup, a school-based nonprofit model for solving this problem, serves 2,600 children at 49 schools statewide. It began in Lawndale in 1987, helping school districts, cities and business and community groups to pool their resources so they can offer convenient, year-round child care at a cost averaging less than $1 an hour per child.

The Ingredients of a Community-Based Child Care Partnership

The name “Stone Soup” comes from a Napoleonic-era children’s story about starving soldiers who persuade reluctant villagers to share their resources to make soup. The soldiers contribute a pot and stone as a symbol of the collaboration. Each villager contributes a food item. The resulting soup sustains everyone, though it began with nothing more than a stone.

Here’s how Stone Soup applies the concept to child care:

School district shares its liability insurance, facilities, utilities, and custodial services.

City may offer direct financial contributions, park and recreation service access, library services, field trip transportation, summer program support.

Stone Soup staff organize the partnership, administer the program and work as teachers and supervisors at each school site.

Businesses, community groups and foundations donate start-up money for school sites and staff development. They also provide funds for activities and materials such art supplies.

Parents pay fees and may volunteer at child-care sites.

Who Pays What

To start a Stone Soup partnership at an elementary school costs about $6,000. Once established, cash expenses are covered by:

Parents’ contributions: 80%

Donations, grants and outside support: 12%

Government funding; 8%

A WELCOME SERVING OF CHILD CARE

Cost: $69 a month for after-school care for one child, $196 a month for summer care. Costs for additional children add about 30%.

Availability: before and after school and during winter, spring and summer vacations from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Child-staff ratio: 11 to 1

TO GET INVOLVED

Call (818) 905-1441.

Researched by CATHERINE GOTTLIEB / Los Angeles Times