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Lansing Board of Water & Light
Enhanced Child Care
Referral Service
The OYC Enhanced Child Care Referral Service
for Lansing Board of Water & Light Employees
The Lansing Board of Water & Light now offers an enhanced child care information and referral service for its employees through a contract with the Ingham County Office for Young Children. For over 15 years the Office for Young Children has been working with child care providers and parents, now this service can directly provide Board of Water & Light employees with child care information and resources.
Program Overview
The Lansing Board of Water & Light recognizes that many employees need child care assistance. The enhanced child care referral service provides parents with information on the types of child care, characteristics of quality care, how to choose child care, referrals to licensed child care homes and centers, and information on financial assistance available in the community.
Program Description
The Office for Young Children (OYC) referral service provides information on the types of regulated child care including preschools, day care centers, group family day care homes, and family day care homes. OYC has information on licensing requirements for each type of care, and is familiar with the advantages of different care arrangements.
The OYC child care specialists assist parents in selecting child care by explaining indicators of quality child care and providing parents a checklist to use in comparing programs. Parents are also provided suggested steps to follow in choosing the type of child care that is best suited for a family's needs. Child care specialists are also available to provide telephone consultations with parents concerning developmental and child care issues.
The OYC enhanced child care referral service provides parents with lists of licensed child care providers who have vacancies and offer care for the ages, times and locations that parents have requested. OYC will call back parents after six weeks to ask if they are satisfied with their child care arrangements or if they need additional child care referrals.
The OYC enhanced child care referral service provides parents with financial information about the following: the Federal Child Care Tax Credit, Michigan DHS day care assistance programs for income eligible families, child care scholarship programs available for the residents of Lansing and East Lansing.
Important Notice:
It's Your Choice
The Ingham County Health Department's Office for Young Children (OYC), through an agreement between Lansing Board of Water and Light (BWL) and Ingham County, provides Lansing Board of Water and Light's employees with child care provider referral services. It is important to remember that this service provides you with referrals, not recommendations. The quality or appropriateness of child care services cannot be guaranteed by the Office for Young Children nor by Lansing Board of Water & Light. The Office for Young Children's referral service provides you with a list of names of child care providers who are licensed or registered by the State of Michigan Division of Child Day Care Licensing, and will provide you with a checklist to evaluate providers, but ONLY YOU CAN DETERMINE WHETHER A PARTICULAR PROVIDER MEETS YOUR NEEDS. You are responsible for making the child care provider selection and monitoring the arrangement. You should understand that the caregivers you are referred to have not been evaluated, screened, or recommended by either the Office for Young Children or the Lansing Board of Water & Light.
Before You Call
Consider These Questions:
- Where do you want your child care to be located - near your home or near your (or your spouse's) work?
- Which type of child care settings do you prefer - family day care home, group day care home or child care center? Or do you want referrals of all three types? (See descriptions under Types of Child Care Referrals.)
- During what hours of the day will your child need care? (Include travel time, too.)
- Do you have any special considerations (such as children with special needs, transportation, rotating shifts, occasional evening care, etc.)?
Types of Child Care Referrals:
The Office for Young Children only refers to child care providers licensed or registered by the State of Michigan Day Care Licensing Division. There are basically three types of child care providers available through the referral service:
- Family day care homes are registered to care for up to six children in the provider's own home. Of these children, no more than two may be under the age 18 months according to the Family Day Care Licensing rules.
- Group day care homes are licensed to care for up to twelve children in the licensee's home. Whenever more than 6 children are attending there must also be a second adult caregiver in the group home.
- Child care centers are licensed facilities other than homes (such as churches, schools or community buildings) which care for young children. Child care centers are also known as nursery schools, parent cooperative preschools, day care centers and drop-in centers. Child care centers may be licensed for infants and toddlers (2 weeks - 2 1/2 years), preschoolers (2 1/2 - 6 years) and for school-age children (6 years and older) before and/or after school hours.
The OYC referral service does not include the names of in-home child care providers ("babysitters"). If you desire in-home child care, OYC can only provide you with ideas on how to go about searching for child caregivers to come into your home, not actual names of caregivers (since this is an unregulated or unlicensed form of child care.)
Enhanced Child Care Referral Service
Office for Young Children
887-4319 or (800)234-6996
Other related BW&L Dependent Care Services
- flexible spending accounts
- job sharing
- flex-time
- leave of absence
- health benefits
- workshops on family issues
- family handbook
For further information on any of these topics contact the Human Resources Division at 371-6262.
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