Head teacher Samantha McCormack reads a story to Frances Booth, 4, at Ready to Learn’s daycare at the Community College of Rhode Island on Wednesday. The preschool program now serves 9 children, but can accommodate 16.

The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

PROVIDENCE — At least 1,500 children no longer qualify for the state’s childcare subsidies and many parents have been scrambling to find a safe replacement.

Some families are no longer able to afford registered daycare centers, according to Christine Chiacu-Forsythe, director of an early-reading program for Ready to Learn Providence, which is dedicated to raising literacy skills among low-income children. Some parents, she said, are relying on grandparents or older siblings for daycare; others are turning to neighbors, while others are sneaking their children to work.

The cuts are affecting childcare providers as well as the families they serve. Last March, Ready to Learn conducted a survey of more than 360 childcare programs statewide and asked them how the change in eligibility requirements affected them:

•Approximately 25 percent reported a decline in program quality.

• Roughly 15 percent reported cutting employees.

• Nearly 40 percent have reduced staff hours.

• About 18 percent imposed new fees on families to offset the loss in revenue.

In response to the growing childcare crisis, Ready to Learn opened a daycare program in October at the Community College of Rhode Island specifically for children whose parents have lost their state subsidies. Using existing grant monies, Ready to Learn is staffing the center with its highly trained workers and CCRI is providing the space free of charge. There is no fee for families attending the program, which is now serving 9 children, but can accommodate 16.

“It’s about providing families with a safe environment for their kids,” said Katie Murray, director of data and evaluation for Ready to Learn. “It’s also about providing a high-quality childcare experience for people who would otherwise have little or no options.”

Losing her childcare subsidy was nothing short of devastating for Belkys Colon, a divorced mother of two who works as a lab technician in Providence. Before the state cut her subsidy, Colon paid $58 per week for both children to attend Beautiful Beginnings daycare center in Providence.

In September 2007, the state reduced the eligibility requirements for families from 225 percent of the poverty level to 180 percent. Under the old rules, a family of three earning $39,000 could be eligible for childcare assistance. Now, only those families earning $32,000 or less are eligible.

Colon lost her entire subsidy. Every month, she spent $400 — about a fourth of her monthly earnings — on daycare, which put the squeeze on other essentials, like paying her mortgage. By the time the reductions took place, Colon’s daughter had entered first grade. “I felt awful,” she said last week. “But what can I do? I can’t afford to quit my job to care for my kids.”

Although Colon found a woman to care for her 3-year-old son, Brendan, she worried that he would miss out on the social, emotional and cognitive experiences provided by a nationally certified childcare program like Beautiful Beginnings.

“In a high-quality childcare setting, preschool children learn emergent literacy skills,” Chiacu-Forsythe said. “They learn how to listen, how to take turns, how to work in a group. A child needs to be able to hear the sound of language. Childcare workers read to children. They sing and recite poetry. Children need those opportunities in order to be ready to read later on.”

Those early learning experiences are particularly important for children living in poverty because research has shown that children from low-income homes start school with smaller vocabularies. Sometimes, children enter kindergarten without knowing how to hold a book, much less write their name.

Meanwhile, changing childcare providers is disruptive to children and families alike. In interviews with nearly 100 parents, Ready to Learn found that children’s friendships have been affected by the cuts in a number of ways: Some have lost friends because they have been removed from their original daycare centers while several children are no longer with children their own age.

In the survey, one parent said, “My 3-year old is definitely back attached to me like a newborn. He was doing his ABCs and writing. Now he’s not doing that anymore. He doesn’t want to play with the other kids anymore.”

Another said, “Their routines have changed, their friendships have changed and they have seen that I am totally stressed out. This affects their emotional health.”

The instability of informal daycare arrangements only adds to the stress that families are experiencing in this abysmal economy. When Brendan’s babysitter became ill this fall, Colon felt pushed to the wall. She discovered that childcare centers routinely cost between $150 and $180 a week, a sum she called outrageous.

Then, someone told Colon about the new program run by Ready to Learn. Her son started there last week.

“This is a really good program,” said Colon, who attends CCRI in Providence. “They do a lot of reading and they have a beautiful playground. I love it.”

lborg@projo.com