Deborah Lustman, Director of Admiral Child Development Center

Good Afternoon and thank you for this opportunity to share with you some of the issues that involve early childhood education and the many children and families that my program serves. I am Deborah Lustman and have been the Director and owner of the Admiral Child Development Center in Carbondale for about 7 years. When I first took over the existing Admiral, which at that time had been serving children for over 10 years, there were about 75 children, Monday through Friday from 7:30AM to 5:30PM. As the basic framework of the family began to change, so did their needs for early childhood services. Currently, to meet these needs, the Admiral serves approximately 160 children ages birth to sixteen, Monday through Saturday, year-round, from 7:30AM to 11:30PM. Carbondale is very much a transient and culturally diverse town, serving numerous University and local college students. Many of these students are single parents, going to school full- time and working 25 to 40 hours a week. 

My reason for being here today is to urge this committee to increase the public dollars invested in the education of children, specifically young children, throughout Illinois. By both increasing the dollars spent and by maximizing the current funding already being used, we can truly begin to serve the ongoing educational needs of young children. 

Approximately 99% of the children at the Admiral receive funding from the Illinois Department of Human Services child care subsidy program. We have numerous children who are currently receiving services through at least one or more other early childhood programs. 

To demonstrate this, let me illustrate to you an example of a typical day for a child at the Admiral. Adam, a four year old, who is also the son of an Admiral employee, comes to the Admiral at 7:15AM. He is with us for breakfast until about 7:45AM when he is picked up at the Admiral by bus and taken a few miles away to his morning Pre-K class. Adam remains there until about 11:00AM at which time he is then bussed again back to the Admiral. He arrives at the Admiral around 11:15AM, just in time for lunch. After that, at about 11:45AM, another bus comes to the Admiral to pick him up to take him a couple miles away to his afternoon Head Start class. Adam remains there until about 3:00PM at which time he is then bussed again back to the Admiral. He arrives at the Admiral around 3:15PM where he remains until his mother gets off of work at 6:00PM, or on nights when his mother goes to job training or school, he is with us until 8:00PM. 

For this typical day, three different funding sources are being utilized, usually providing duplicate services. In addition, Adam is occupying three slots at three different early childhood education programs, which are providing much of the same basic services, while other children go unserved due to limited slots. Adam is only one of many children that Admiral serves during the regular school year. During non-attendance days, holiday breaks and over the summer when Pre-K and Head Start are not serving him, Adam is at the Admiral a full work day, without interruption in his care. 

It is because of this consistency of care and the quality of care Admiral offers that we serve more than 60 children during odd-hour care (Saturdays and evenings from 5:30-11:30PM). This then provides parents the opportunities to work, acquire necessary job training, and/or go to school. The only measure of successful welfare reform is a system that allows parents to go to work and/or school and keep going to work. The ultimate benefits then are returned to the state in the form of increased tax revenues (due to these parents earning higher wages) and reduced costs for welfare and later rehabilitative services. 

As an early childhood educator, I witness the daily challenges (both social and emotional development delays and difficulties) that these children experience through inconsistent care. I have also known, and more recently research has supported, that if these children do not receive the quality social and emotional development in their earliest years then they are at risk of academic failure later in their schooling. 

By collaborating and bringing all these streams of funding together, providing universal access to full (work) day, full year services for children, we can maximize the developmental needs of all children as well as for their parents.