The county is failing to deliver critically needed services to one of its most vulnerable populations - poor children. Families have to meet work and income requirements to be eligible for child-care subsidies from Monroe County. A recently study says 75 percent of those who are eligible are not receiving the subsidies.

The study, "Access to Subsidized Child Care in Monroe County," shows that the number of children who received child-care subsidies from the county has dropped by 38 percent in less than seven years - from 13,500 in 2001 to 8,500 in 2007.

Just as troubling, the study indicates that the county stepped-up its efforts to deny child-care services during those years. The study was prepared by the Center for Governmental Research on behalf of the Monroe County Early Childhood Development Initiative, a coalition of agencies consisting of United Way, Children's Institute, The Rochester Area Community Foundation and The Children's Agenda.

The study raises serious questions about the county's management of child-care subsidies, and its applicant screening process.

Research strongly suggests that child-care subsidies for low-income families are an excellent investment for the child and the community, says Carolyn Lee-Davis, policy analyst with The Children's Agenda.

"Children who have access to quality child care are more likely to do better in school," she says. "This is preventive. We should want these children to receive this service."

A child from a low-income family enrolled in subsidized care gains access to other services that can help that child with health and education. The city school district's Pre-K program is a good example, says Jacqueline Cady, chairperson for the Early Childhood Development Initiative. Pre-K is only two-and-a-half hours a day - not ideal for working parents. If the child is in subsidized care, however, parents can keep working and the child can attend Pre-K.

Workforce stability, says CGR's Donald Pryor, is another benefit of subsidized child care. Pryor was project director for the study.

"What we're really talking about is whether some parents will be able to work or not," he says. "Knowing that their child is being taken care of by professionals means that parent can focus and be more productive."

The big question for Monroe County: why have fewer eligible children received the child-care subsidy?

The study offers three explanations. The most likely has to do with the county's decision in 2002 to dramatically change the income eligibility requirements. Better quality child care for an infant costs between $8,000 and $10,000 annually, says Lee-Davis. A single mother with two children earning $28,000 can't afford it without some type of help. When parents struggle with child-care costs, they may have to leave their children with relatives, neighbors or older siblings.

"It forces mom into making the lowest-cost decision," Lee-Davis says. "And that really concerns us."

Confusion about changing eligibility requirements contributed to the decline in children receiving assistance. Focus groups showed that some parents couldn't determine if they were eligible, and some found the 14-page applications too complicated.

But the study also revealed that the number of applicants who were denied services by the county dramatically increased from 11 percent in 2001 to 50 percent in 2007. Some of the denials are perfectly legitimate, but it's the sharp increase that concerns Lee-Davis.

Screeners, some in the focus group said, were looking for reasons to deny applications.

"We don't know exactly why the county was denying so many applicants," Lee-Davis says.

"What is the intent of the screener?" says CGR's Pryor. "We can't say definitively, but reasons to deny an applicant that weren't being used at all at one point were being used all over the place later, causing the number of denials to jump."

County officials may have been acting overly cautious, Pryor says, even though they haven't been using all the state funding available to them.

The third reason for the decline was attributed to Monroe County's population loss. There are fewer children in the eligible 0 to 12 age group living in the county in 2007 than there were in 2001, says Pryor. But the demand for child care for low-income parents remains high, he says, particularly in the city.

The bad news, says Pryor, is that no one knows what happened to the 5,000 children who were in child care but fell out of enrollment from 2001 to 2007.

"The county doesn't have any tracking mechanism that follows-up on applicants that were denied or children who leave," he says.

The county, he says, cooperated in the study and is interested in making improvements to the child-care subsidy process.

"There is a lot we can do to promote awareness of the subsidies, and we are looking at ways to increase funding from the state," he says.