We were quite disheartened to learn that the Child Care Council of the Finger Lakes plans to shut down at the end of the month, and we were also quite displeased with the lack of an explanation.

The Child Care Council, which had been planning a 20th anniversary gala for August, has performed an important function in this area, its main focus being to help struggling families by subsidizing the cost of day care so that parents can work or go to school.

Affordable quality child care is extremely important for many families, allowing parents and guardians to go out and earn a paycheck instead of relying on public assistance, or to attend educational or vocational courses to advance their employment prospects.

That's why it is so troubling that the Child Care Council is preparing to shut down its operations and that alternate resources for families in need have yet to be established.

Additionally, the Child Care Council needs to be more proactive, even in its final days, to share what it knows with the public.

When we inquired, the president of the council's board of directors would only say that “unfortunate circumstances” were to blame and that a transition of its services was being worked out.

Since this agency is overwhelmingly funded by taxpayer dollars, the board of the Child Care Council owes the public an explanation about how things got to this point and where its clients might be able to secure similar services in its absence.

The state Office of Child and Family Services on Tuesday said that a transfer of services from the Child Care Council to another agency still hasn't been finalized.

The Child Care Council needs to be open and honest with the people who have supported the agency with their checkbooks, and more importantly, with the people who have come to rely on its services.