Child care a 24-hour occupation

Policticans love to talk about the next generation of Americans. Pop stars have even put the concept to song. Both say "the children are our future."

But as the business world increasingly becomes a 24-hour operation, people's work lives are starting to infringe upon other round-the-clock responsibilities

"Child care is a huge issue. People want to know what their options are locally and how to determine the quality of the service offered," said Sherri Sutera, director of child care services for United Way.

Sutera runs a state-funded 800-number that provides child care referrals and helps answer working parents' questions on finding the best care for their children.

The Child Care Infoline fields an estimated 40,000 calls a year.

One of biggest problems parents face is the prospect of finding back-up care when their children cannot attend their regular day care facility, Sutera said.

Situations such as snow days, when the parent Must Still go to work, or when the child cannot attend due to illness, put pressure on parents to find a solution and find it fast.

"Back-up care is expensive and parents usually don't have a lot of notice so it is good to have something arranged in advance," said Sutera.

Kate Davie, senior manager of human resources for the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche, said her company surveyed all of its 29,000 employees and found that back-up child care was at the top of the list of concerns.

The Wilton-based firm now provides in-home back-up care as part of its benefits package. Each employee receives 15 (lays of backup care a year, paid by the company.

"We like to recruit and retain top talent, Back-up care makes it so the employee is not constantly worrying about these things," said Davie.

Deloitte & Touche is also one of the local companies that contributes to the American Business Collaboration for Quality Dependent Care - a national effort to increase the supply and enhance the quality of child care.

Participating corporations have invested more than $100 million to strengthen child care programs across the country since 1992.

These are not donations. The money is corporate dollars invested to bolster productivity, employee retention and competitiveness in the global economy.

Other Fairfield County participants include GE Capital Services, Xerox and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

However, Davie said Deloitte & Touche is not offering its employees any primary day care benefits.

Joe Brennan, vice president of legislative affairs for the Connecticut Business & Industry Association in Hartford, said that liability issues probably represent the greatest barrier to businesses establishing there own day care facilities for employees.

His comments were included in a report released in July by the General Assembly's Office of Legislative Research.

The report also cites, "a general disinclina tion to get involved with employees' day care needs," costs and the believe that onsite (lay care can be a distraction, as reasons why many companies don't offer primary day care.

Connecticut corporations can receive a tax credit for developing day care facilities or for subsidizing day care for their employees under the "human capital investment" credit or the Neighborhood Assistance Act.

But the state Department of Revenue Services cannot identify the number of businesses that took a credit, or estimate the total dollar value involved because the credits are grouped with other tax incentives and are not specified on corporate tax returns.

All of this increases demand for the existing licensed facilities in the state.

According to the state Department of Social Services' annual report, there were 4,442 licensed day care homes and 1,725 licensed day care centers in the state as of June 1999, providing a total of 124,506 spaces.