History

In response to growing concerns by parents, child care providers and other interested groups, Mayor Theodore D. Mann, the Newton School Committee and the Newton Board of Alderman appointed a Child Care Commission in 1986. Charged with the assessment of child care needs in the City of Newton, the Child Care Commission conducted a city-wide needs assessment, utilizing City Census information and a series of targeted questionnaires sent to families, child care providers and municipal leaders across the U.S. The findings of the Commissions's first report, New Directions in Child Care, indicated tremendous local child care needs, including:

• 75% of Newton mothers are in the work force, including 65% of mothers with infants (Newton figures exceed national averages)
• One third of children in grades 4th-6th were caring for themselves in the afternoon at least part of the time their parents were at work
• More than 10% of Newton families were struggling to afford the cost of child care - spending more than 15% of their income on child care expenses

Following this research, a Child Care Advisory Committee was formed to develop an action plan addressing Newton's child care needs. The results of their work was summarized in a second report,A Blueprint for Child Care in Newton. This report outlined an array of strategies for addressing Newton's child care needs through the creation of public/private partnerships.

In January of 1989, a permanent Child Care Commission, composed of child care providers, parents, city and school department heads and elected officials was created. A Child Care Coordinator was hired with "seed money" from the City and a two year grant from the Riley Foundation. Three months later, an affiliated non-profit organization, the Newton Child Care Fund, was established to serve as the financial "action arm" of the Commission.

Since 1997, with the support of Newton's mayors, the commission has received funds from the City of Newton to cover the administrative costs of salaries and office expenses thereby enabling the commission to put its efforts towards exploring funding sources for scholarship needs as well as to continue to sponsor programs for families with low to moderate incomes, as well as single parent families in the city.

The Newton Child Care Commission and Fund is committed to continuing to focus on meeting the City of Newton's most pressing child care needs. As a result, Newton is now sought by cities and towns throughout the state and across the nation as a model for how local communities can effectively address the child care needs of a range of constituents, and, in particular, those residents of our city who fall in the low and moderate income brackets.