Classified Staff Child Care Grants offer hope and opportunities

The Office of Child Care and Family Resources (OCCFR) has selected two recipients of the Classified Staff Child Care Grants.

The $500 and $250 grants were awarded to two families and will be paid directly to the regulated child care the families choose.

Darcy Wittberger, one of the 2009 recipients, works in communications in the Division of International Studies. Her husband is a psychology intern at the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. He receives a small stipend for his work, so the couple and their almost 3-year-old son live almost entirely on Wittberger’s salary.

According to the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, Wisconsin families pay between $8,000 and $10,000 a year for child care.

Connie Wilson, an assistant dean emerita in the dean of students office, instituted the grant in 2003.

The grant is privately funded, and the amount available varies from year to year, as do the number of recipients. The grants have been awarded to up to six families per year. Wilson says the OCCFR usually receives between six and 20 applications.

Any permanent, classified employee with at least one child under 12 years old is eligible to apply. The application deadline is Nov. 1, and recipients are notified the following month.

Wittberger says the grant will pay for two weeks of their son’s day care. He’s enrolled at the UW–Madison-contracted Little Chicks Learning Academy, where they pay enrollment fees of about $1,100 a month.

The Wisconsin State Employees Union has taken an interest in the grant. They’re collecting their own donations and when their funds exceed $20,000 they will give their own award in conjunction with the OCCFR grant.

“We’d like to see other unions on campus do the same thing as the WSEU,” Wilson says.

Families who don’t receive the Child Care Grant or who have urgent situations can also apply for emergency assistance through the OCCFR year round.

For information or to apply for the Classified Staff Child Care Grant or for emergency assistance, visit Office of Child Care and Family Resources.

To donate to the grant fund, contact Connie Wilson at 890-2841.