A family child care provider for 13 years, Susan Austin cares for 8 children whose attendance is supported by the Stage 3 child care threatened by Gov. Schwarzenegger’s veto. A single mother who was on public assistance herself 40 years ago, all of Austin’s clients are single mothers who are also working their way to independence.

Though if the program closes entirely, Austin says, “I will have no business. I tried to work with my parents to try to keep a roof over my head, but they couldn’t afford it.” All she has now, she said, “is my home and my dignity.”

But Austin doesn’t think of her child care as a job, but a career and a lifestyle. She says her reward is “when kids graduate college. When I take a parent from living in a car with two little kids, to getting on public assistance, to working, to her son serving two terms in Iraq.”

Then there’s something else Austin has; plenty of stories about the families she works with, takes care of and clearly worries for. Families like Monica’s*, a single mom who’s had her three children in Austin’s care for some time now.

Austin has watched Monica’s children for 7 years. Because Monica had been earning more at her current job in medical billing, Austin thought she was doing well and expected the family to be off the program within a year.

Then Austin had to tell Monica about the end of the Stage 3 program.

“She just fell apart,” Austin said. “She was just saying, ‘What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?’ Within days of me telling her, she was at the heart specialist and they were telling her she’d gone down hill.”

Austin explained that Monica had suffered a heart attack four years earlier, brought on by the birth of her youngest child. Monica’s doctors have been concerned that she might follow her mother, who’d died early of heart failure. But the news about losing access to child care may have been too much to take.

“She’s in the hospital for heart surgery right now,” Austin said tearfully, “and I’m taking care of her kids for free.”

Another of Austin’s charges is a 2 1/2 year old whose mother is in college. Austin explained that she was trying to get her master’s degree because she couldn’t get a job with a B.A., and needed child care while she was in school.

Austin, whose own adult daughter can’t find a job in Orange County, CA, even with dual High School teaching credentials in English and music, is sympathetic.

And several of Austin’s clients depend on her for help they can’t get elsewhere. “Many of the children stay with me because they have behavioral issues no one else wants to take care of,” she said.

“I have a boy who came to me three years ago. He has ADHD, he was kicking and biting me at first,” Austin said. “Now he’s in the 6th grade and he’s no longer in the principal’s office all the time, because he had stable, consistent care.” Though if the Stage 3 program closes and his mother keeps her job, Austin worries that he might have to stay by himself after school with a younger sister who’s in 2nd grade.

Susan Austin, on caring for children with ADHD:

Be patient. It’s not going to turn around over night. You need a lot of communication between parents and providers to establish consistency and structure.

The children need consistent, positive reinforcement. You should always have a calm, caring tone, even when they’re kicking you.

You’ve got to give the kids who have these issues a double dose of love, establish trust and respect with them so they know they can count on you.

“Child care is different than being on aid,” Austin said, “you don’t get it unless you work. These people have to work or they wouldn’t get care. So we’re getting them out and working, encouraging them to work. Taking it away takes away our jobs, takes away their jobs, takes away the safety and health of the children.”

“California’s primary workforce is 20-40, that’s the child bearing age,” Austin said. “Child care keeps families working in California.”

“We live in this beautiful place where the whole world wants to come for vacation and we’re turning it into a desert, … devoid of hope and future,” Austin said. “These are hard working people who just need a little support. We’re destroying the American Dream for our youth.”

“The only thing keeping me going is my faith,” Austin said. “I believe He’ll have the last word and it will be good. He’s always looked after me before, He will again, and these children and their families.”

Photo: From left to right, R. Maggie Lopez, Susan Austin and Gloria Clemens at the October 26th rally in Long Beach, where family child care providers demonstrated in front of the Women’s Conference to ask Governor Schwarzenegger to extend Stage 3 child care funding. The cuts have been halted by a judge through this week. Entry cross-posted from the Early Learning blog.

* Name changed for privacy.