I am from Alexandria, VA. In July my boyfriend and I recieved custody of his two very young children. We were not expecting this and we both work full time. I am a teacher so once the school year was about to start we needed to look into daycares and ran into the same problem. What we did was go to our local social services building and got ourselves a social worker. Now mind you, we both earn pretty good money, but the living expenses around here are very expensive. She was able to direct us to the family services department and all we had to do was fill out some applications and we were able to have daycare paid for us until this process was over. It will be 4 1/2 months now and we are just being asked to start paying. WE filled out another application and we have a reduced rate based on our income. It has helped a lot. I am a proud person and growing up my family never recieved assistance on anything. It was hard for me to do this, but it has been a life saver and I am forever greatful for programs like this. It is really worth a try and you should look into it. Our children attend an acadamy and learn more and more everyday. It is great for their social skills and they have really come a long way. The academy has a pre-school in it as well. so as the kids get older, they go into older classrooms and learn, learn, learn. I hope it works out for you, things can be tough and we always put our children first!
R.