Plagued by a lack of money and mounting financial obligations, the Easter Seals’ Jayne Shover Center in Elgin will close its child-development program in April, displacing 65 clients and laying off 18 employees.
“The [program] loses about $100,000 a year,” said Alfred Y. Kirkland, chairman of the board for the center. “We have to subsidize it.”
In the past year, it cost $450,000 to run the program, but the center took in only $360,000. The board voted this week to close the program April 20.
“We’ll try to find places for the children elsewhere in the community,” Kirkland said.
The transition for the clients, about 20 percent of whom are disabled, may not be simple.
“I don’t know if I am going to be able to find another place,” said Neddy Sanchez, an Elgin resident who paid $230 a month for her two children to attend the program. Sanchez’s 18-month-old daughter can go to day care but her 3-year-old has cerebral palsy.
“I have a full-time job. My husband has a job. I don’t know if I am going to provide transportation to take him to another facility or to hire someone to take care of him,” she said. “Easter Seals was perfect for my family.”
The program started three years ago to provide educational and therapy services to children up to 5 years old. The increasing costs of services and insurance, cuts in state spending and the high salaries of special-education teachers and therapists was too much to overcome, Kirkland said.
In February 2003, the board eliminated its adoption, foster care, respite and preschool programs because of budget deficits.
