Web page created to update work force on Lab's child-care proposal

The center will augment existing child-care services now available in Los Alamos and the region. The new child-care facility is scheduled to open in 2003, depending on the response to the request for proposal and other factors.

The Web page is part of the Program for Working Families Dependent Care Resource Web page and can be found at http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/dvo/dependent/index.htm online, said Jeannine Holland of the Human Resources (HR) Division.

She said information will be posted on the Web site at the beginning of every month. It also will contain general information on the Laboratory's proposal. She added that the Women's Diversity Working Group asked HR to create the Web page.

The Lab in August announced it was issuing a request for proposals for operating the facility, which would accommodate 50 children of Laboratory workers and Department of Energy personnel. The Lab also notified key community leaders about its plan to issue the request for proposals.

"This is the right thing to do. It's a statement to our employees that we care about this issue," Laboratory Director John Browne has said, adding, "It is important to the institution and our quality of work-life efforts that we establish a child-care center for Lab workers."

According to the request for proposal, 23 of the 50 slots in the new child-care facility would be for children younger than 2 years old. Twenty slots would be for children between ages 2 and 6, and seven slots will be for "drop-in" or transitional child care. The facility will be operated as a pilot for five years at which time it will be evaluated and its future operational status determined.

The Lab child-care facility would operate under the standards of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, a nationwide professional organization for early childhood educators.

Rates to be charged for child-care service would be consistent with the rate structure of existing child-care providers in the community. In addition, salaries paid to child-care staff at the facility would be consistent with salaries paid to staff at existing, accredited child-care facilities in the area. Staff at the Lab's child-care facility would not be University of California employees but, rather, would be employees of the vendor.

For more information, see the Aug. 28 Daily Newsbulletin.

-- Steve Sandoval

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