Security Blanket : Backup Child Care the Latest Option for Parents, Firms

The newest child-care center in downtown Los Angeles is filled with toys, bright colors, the laughter of children and the relief of parents whose regular baby-sitting arrangements have temporarily disintegrated.

Called Children First, the center is the only one in Southern California devoted strictly to backup child care for those inevitable times when school is closed, the nanny calls in sick, your home-care provider has her house fumigated, a stay-at-home spouse schedules a job interview or your child develops some noncontagious malady.

Children First, which officially opens today, is sponsored by a dozen downtown employers, primarily law firms, as a way to reduce employee absenteeism and boost productivity. Employees make a reservation, show up at the appointed time with children (ages 3 months to 12 years) in tow and proceed to work, happy in the knowledge that their kids are being entertained at a site that is more secure than most bank vaults and by a teacher who, more likely than not, holds an advanced degree.

Backup care is the latest wrinkle in the child-care blanket as corporations learn that employees with sudden child-care snags are employees who will not be on the job that day.

Although some child-care centers will provide temporary care for preschool-age children if space is available, no other center in Southern California specializes in filling in when regular child care breaks down or your child’s school springs a teacher training day on you. (A few centers for mildly ill children operate in Southern California, and several will accept healthy children if space is available and the parents aren’t too worried about germs.)

“Employers are realizing that there is a dire effect on the bottom line . . . just because child care has fallen through,” said Andrea Goodman, director of marketing for Boston-based Children First Inc., which operates the center. The 3-year-old corporation runs nine backup centers nationwide, and will open its 10th, in San Francisco, in January.

Child-care problems can cause an employee to miss up to eight days of work a year, which recent studies show can add up to as much as $4,000 per year per employee, Goodman said. Participating in a backup child-care center costs employers significantly less, she said.

Goodman declined to spell out the per-employer costs of the Los Angeles center, but she said they are similar to those at a Children First center in Boston where several large employers kicked in $20,000 per space initially, plus an annual participation fee of $18,000 per space. Fees can be much lower, Goodman said, depending on the size of the employer and the extent of its participation in the center. Children First also operates centers sponsored by office building landlords or by a single corporation.

Larry Sobel, managing partner in Los Angeles for Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, said the law firm participates in the Los Angeles center because of the economic benefit to the firm and its employees.

“We are in business, and, like everything else, you need to analyze the pros and cons of anything you do,” Sobel said. Child-care emergencies are “very disruptive to the office, and it can be very expensive to bring in temporary employees for a day or two.”

At Children First, parents are given a certain number of days they can use the center, typically no more than 20 a year. Any co-payment by the employee is determined by the employer, Goodman said.

As part of the center’s tight security procedures, parents fill out extensive preregistration packets and are required to supply photos of the child, parents and anyone authorized to pick up the child.

No signs identify the Hope Street office building housing Children First, and visitors must be buzzed through two locked doors to reach the pleasant, light-filled center. (The locked doors are for security only and parents are encouraged to drop in at any time, particularly at lunchtime.) Security cameras, which are masked from the children’s view, constantly sweep the facility.

The center is divided into separate areas for infants, toddlers, preschoolers and school-age children, with activities appropriate for each. The infant room features a tiny mirror and ballet barre for standers-in-training; the school-age area includes a climbing structure and computers.

The curriculum varies each week, but the staff doesn’t, Goodman said. Children First prides itself on a low turnover rate and a high level of staff training, she said, adding that about 75% of the Los Angeles staff holds master’s degrees.

The center does not care for sick children, but it will accept a child who, for example, sprained his ankle and needs to rest for a day or two. Now that Children First has opened centers in several major cities, including New York and Chicago, it is becoming popular with traveling parents who can take their children on business trips and leave them for the day at a Children First center in another town, Goodman said.

Los Angeles employers that have signed up for the center: Boston Consulting Group; Ernst & Young; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Heller, Erhman, White & McAuliffe; Kirkland & Ellis; Latham & Watkins; Morrison & Foerster; Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe; Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro; Scudder, Stevens & Clark; Capital Group Cos.; and Trust Co. of the West.

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Watching the Kids

A dozen downtown employees are sponsoring Los Angeles’s first backup child-care center, Children First, which opens today. Children First runs nine such centers nationwide. Reasons parents give for using them, and clients by industry:

WHY

Normal provider ill or unavailable: 66%

School closed: 25%

Other (maternity leave, travel, relocation): 9%

WHO

Financial and accounting: 45%

Legal: 29%

Consumer products: 8%

Insurance: 7%

Other: 11% Note: Figures are for January through October 1995

Source: Children First

Researched by MAGGIE BARNETT / Los Angeles Times