On Oct. 1, the state will stop using voucher management agencies to dole out child care subsidies and will instead give parents debit cards to pay for day care themselves.

The state says the change will save about $1 million and make the program more efficient.

But child care providers worry parents will spend their state aid on everything but day care.

"We're talking lots of money. Lots and lots of money," said Anne F. Craigs, executive director of the YWCA in Lewiston.

The YWCA cares for 100 children a day. Full-time care costs an average $140 a week. About half of the parents sending kids there get state help.

"It doesn't sound like, at least from what I can see, the state has done anything to prepare the (subsidy) recipients," Craigs said. "It's like a debit card. They hand them a debit card."

Maine began using the cards in 2003, when it got rid of paper food stamps in favor of electronic transfers. Since then, the state has done the same thing for rent, electricity, travel and other expenses paid for low-income people. Child care is the last state subsidy to move to debit cards. For some families, it will be the largest amount they get from the state.

The average food stamp allotment is $238 a month for a family with children, for example. The average child care subsidy is $420 a month.

Families qualify for child care assistance by meeting income guidelines and by working or attending school. They also typically receive some form of financial education.

Between 2,000 and 2,500 Mainers get child care help.

The state had contracted with 11 voucher management agencies to deal with child care providers and pay the bills. Maine will cut out that middleman, loading debit cards with money and making parents responsible for paying the day care bill each week.

"They're not the providers' benefits. They're the parents' benefits," said Barb Van Burgel, director of the Office of Integrated Access and Support, which determines who gets assistance for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Providers agree the benefits belong to parents. But they would also like to be paid, and they aren't sure they can always count on parents - newly flush with cash - to do that.

"It's a little scary," said Erica Longchamps, director of Lever's Day Care Center in Lewiston. "We need to have everyone pay or we just can't stay open."

Her center cares for 170 children. About 110 get state aid.

DHHS officials say fraud has been rare with the debit cards used for food, rent and other expenses, with just two cases of misuse in the past two years.

But unlike food stamp debit cards, which are locked against use at places that don't sell food, child care debit cards will be open for use anywhere. To guard against theft, officials say child care providers can report to DHHS when parents haven't paid for child care. Those parents could lose all benefits and could be required to pay any unpaid child care bills out of their own pocket.

"The families we serve really don't want to lose their benefit," Van Burgel said.

DHHS officials believe the debit cards will be a good thing. Parents won't have to worry about the stigma of state assistance because they can pay for care directly, just like all the other families. Providers can get paid the Friday before the new week rather than waiting weeks for a check, as they did with voucher management agencies. And if providers are very concerned about not getting paid, officials said, they can require parents to sign up for automatic payments that are withdrawn electronically.

That's what Androscoggin Head Start plans to do. But Sharon Philbrook Bergeron, grant and budget specialist, worries parents will simply leave Head Start for a day care center that doesn't require automatic withdrawal.

"And they'll lose the quality of service they get from us," she said.

DHHS plans to monitor the debit card program over the year and tweak it as necessary.

In the meantime, Craigs has a strategy for her YWCA child care center. All children can attend on Friday, Sept. 28. All can attend Monday, Oct. 1.

But not after that, not without payment.

"We're going to be at the front door with a clipboard Tuesday morning," she said.