<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16414" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV>
<DIV class=storyhdr>
<P><SPAN><FONT size=2>Just saw this on Yahoo news, seemed appropriate in light
of recent "events" in our illustrious state legislature.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN><FONT size=5>Child care oversight lax in many states</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN><FONT size=2>By DAVID CRARY </FONT></SPAN>Thu Mar 1, 5:40 AM ET </P>
<DIV class=spacer></DIV></DIV>
<P>NEW YORK - Many states are distressingly lax in their regulation and
oversight of child care centers, according to a new nationwide survey which
gives its lowest marks to Idaho and Louisiana and its highest grade to the
far-flung system run by the U.S. military. <!-- SpaceID=0 noconn 61 ads1 -->
<P>Among the common problems in the states are infrequent inspections, deficient
safety requirements, and low hiring standards — including lack of full criminal
background checks — for center employees.</P>
<P>"State child care standards and oversight in this nation are not protecting
our children and are not preparing them for success in school," said Linda
Smith, executive director of the National Association of Child Care Resource and
Referral Agencies, which was releasing the first-of-its-kind ranking
Thursday.</P>
<P>She urged action by Congress and state legislatures. An estimated 12 million
children under age 5 are in non-parental child care each week.</P>
<P>The association reviewed policies and regulations for all 50 states, the
District of Columbia and the Defense Department, which ranked a decisive No. 1
overall and led both subcategories — one measuring standards that are in place,
the second measuring how vigorously the standards are enforced.</P>
<P>"Standards are meaningless without oversight," Smith said. "The Defense
Department has good enforcement, and that has brought their program to a much
higher level."</P>
<P>Following the military atop the rankings were Illinois, New York, Maryland,
Washington, Oklahoma, Michigan, North Dakota, Tennessee, Minnesota and
Vermont.</P>
<P><FONT size=4><STRONG><U>Idaho ranked last; the next lowest scores were for
Louisiana, Nebraska, Kentucky, California and Kansas</U></STRONG></FONT>.</P>
<P>Criteria for the rankings included caseloads for center inspectors, frequency
of inspections, health and safety requirements, background checks, staff
qualifications and activities offered to children.</P>
<P>The report, "We Can Do Better," said eight states do not even require annual
inspections of child care centers, let alone conduct them quarterly as Smith's
association recommends. The association also advises that each inspector have no
more than 50 centers to monitor; the report said 21 states have caseloads of
more than 140 per inspector.</P>
<P>Regarding staff, the report said 21 states have no minimum educational
requirement for child care teachers; it said only New Jersey and the Defense
Department require center directors to have a bachelor's degree.</P>
<P>The military's system, which has expanded and improved dramatically over the
past 15 years, encompasses more than 740 facilities worldwide with spaces for
184,000 children. Its training and safety standards are considered
state-of-the-art.</P>
<P>"We've worked hard for a lot of years so service members can do their jobs
and not have to worry about their children," said Barbara Thompson, director of
the <SPAN class=yqlink>
<FORM class=yqin action=http://yq.search.yahoo.com/search method=post><INPUT
type=hidden value='"Pentagon"' name=p> <INPUT type=hidden value=c1,i,yn,c3
name=sourceOrder> <INPUT type=hidden
value='<p style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-weight:bold;font-size:13px;padding:0;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:.5em;">Pentagon</p>'
name=c1> <INPUT type=hidden
value='<p><strong>SEARCH</strong><br /><a href="http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=%22Pentagon%22&fr=yqovly1">News</a> | <a href="http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=%22Pentagon%22&c=news_photos&fr=yqovly2">News Photos</a> | <a href="http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=%22Pentagon%22&fr=yqovly3">Images</a> | <a href="http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%22Pentagon%22&fr=yqovly4">Web</a></p>'
name=c3> <INPUT type=hidden name=sourceURL> <INPUT type=hidden value=yq-news
name=fr> <INPUT type=hidden
value=""We've worked hard for a lot of years so service members can do their jobs and not have to worry about their children," said Barbara Thompson, director of the Pentagon's children and youth office."
name=context> </FORM><A class=yqimgins title="Related information on Pentagon"
onclick="activateYQinl(this);return false;"
href="http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Pentagon"><STRONG><FONT
color=#003399>Pentagon</FONT></STRONG></A></SPAN>'s children and youth
office.</P>
<P>Idaho's low ranking came as no surprise to state Rep. George Sayler, who has
been trying unsuccessfully for three years to tighten regulation of child care
centers. Oversight is minimal for Idaho centers with fewer than 13 children;
many are not required to be licensed, and employees do not need first-aid
training or a high school degree.</P>
<P>Some conservative legislators object to tougher regulations as "a threat to
the family, or a burden on small providers," Sayler said. "I don't really hear
concern from them about children."</P>
<P>Louisiana officials also were unsurprised by their low ranking and said they
are working hard on an overhaul of child care licensing requirements that was
interrupted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.</P>
<P>"We have a lot of work to do" said Sherry Guarisco, director of child care
for the state's Department of Social Services. "But I think that when the next
report comes out, we'll see a much different standing for Louisiana."</P>
<P>Louisiana will soon join about a dozen other states that have established
rating systems for child care centers. In California, a bill to create such a
system was introduced in the legislature this week by Assemblyman John Benoit,
who evoked the 2004 drowning of a toddler at a licensed day care facility in
Riverside, Calif.
<P>The new report said elected officials could take "simple steps" to ease the
worst problems.
<P>It said Congress should require fingerprint checks and basic training for all
paid day care workers as a condition for states to receive federal child care
funds. It urged states to improve staff-child ratios and require centers to meet
basic health and safety standards.
<P>"States are making this harder than they need to," said Linda Smith. "If they
just do the basics, they can fix a lot of the problems."
</P></DIV></BODY></HTML>