Unlicensed Family Child Care–It’s the Norm!

I was horrified to learn of the alleged actions of the son of a family child care provider that led to his arrest on January 19.  The Mason, Ohio, man was charged with 117 federal charges of producing, possessing and transporting child pornography.  His alleged molestation victims in 2002 and 2003 were children in his mother’s family child care home. 

The family child care provider was unlicensed.  In that, she is not alone.  There are no licensed home-based child care providers in Ohio.  A person can legally care for up to six children at a time without having to agree to any health and safety regulations.  Those who know me have heard this song before: To do manicures for pay in this state – and every state – one must be trained and licensed.  Same for grooming dogs. Same for giving tattoos.  And hair-cutting. But not for caring for vulnerable young children for pay. 

The woman in Mason had never been given a set of health and safety regulations. She had never had an inspection of any sort – for fire safety or for crib safety, or for knowledge of basic first aid.  And worst of all, in this case, there was no opportunity to do a background check on adults living in her home.

Ohio is one of only five states in the country (the others being South Dakota, Idaho, Louisiana, and New Jersey) that does not regulate home-based child care businesses until there are at least seven children in care.  Do we really need to have one tragedy after another before Ohio will agree to regulate these businesses? Home-based child care is the largest legally-operating business in the underground economy. Bringing these businesses out from under the table would bring a double benefit – children would be safer and taxes could be collected on these (now) known businesses. Who could argue with that?

Television and Family Child Care – Not Good News

New research from the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute has found that preschoolers in home-based child care businesses watch 2.4 hours of television a day, compared to .4 hours per day at a child care center.  These numbers may be significantly higher, according to the lead researcher, Dr. Dimitri Christakis, as it is a self-report, and providers may tend to underreport.

Children go home in the evenings to busy households where they are likely to watch two to three additional hours of television, thus five or more hours a day for a child who is awake only 12 hours a day.  The providers in the study were from among the 45 states that license home-based child care, unlike Ohio where no regulation is required until a provider cares for seven or more children.  I suspect that the situation is worse in homes where there is no oversight and no training.

The American Academy of Pediatrics discourages any television viewing, including videos or educational television, in the first two years of life and recommends a daily limit of one to two hours of quality programming for older children.

Child care should be an opportunity to enjoy imaginative play, develop social skills and participate in activities that develop cognitive abilities.  Our community has long rejected simple custodial care since we learned that the majority of brain development takes place during the first years of life.

Christakis, the study’s lead researcher, said, “High quality preschool can make a very, very positive difference. We’re so far from meeting that, that we really have a lot of work to do. Any time a TV is on, children speak less and adults interact with them less frequently.”

Public policy issues abound in this research: the need for parent education about choosing quality child care, the need for states like Ohio to regulate all child care businesses, and the importance of ongoing education for child care professionals.  As Christakis said, “we really have a lot of work to do.”

Posted by sallie on Thursday, November 26, 2009 1:00 AM

Child Care Licensing Dead in Cincinnati – for Now

For 41 years the City of Cincinnati has licensed child care centers. The City adopted regulations long before the State of Ohio began its oversight function, and City leaders regularly renewed their commitment to higher standards – particularly when it came to class size. 

Effective October 31, 2009, the City regulations are off the books, and inspections have ended. The reason is, like so much in this time of economic strain, the City cannot afford to subsidize this protection for children. A second concern is that state law does not “give permission” to localities to create child care regulations. This has been the case for the full 41 years, but with this legal opinion, combined with budget constraints, the regulations were doomed. 

4C has convened a group of child care providers and advocates to determine if the child protections are salvageable. Our first step will be to get language in the state law that permits cities to have regulations which exceed the state’s. Such language currently exists for nursing homes, and we hope to mirror that language. If we succeed in this first step , we will then propose a plan in which fees cover all expenses. I’ll keep blogging on this issue, so stay tuned.

The Devil is in the Details

A number of highly dedicated early childhood professionals are hard at work designing Ohio’s new Center for Early Childhood Development. This far-reaching endeavor is designed to create a single administrative structure with the authority and responsibility to implement and coordinate state funded or administered early childhood programs and services for children prenatally until entry into kindergarten. See the Build Ohio website for more information. www.build-ohio.org

This planning is based on Governor Ted Strickland vision stated in his 2009 State of the State Address: “To better serve our youngest learners and help them thrive in school and in life, we will unite all of our early childhood development programs and resources into the Department of Education. This comprehensive early childhood system will focus on the whole child and provide quality early learning and care while improving our efficiency and effectiveness.”

It sounds ideal – and even more important now that the state is struggling with drastic reductions in funding to important efforts like early childhood. But the devil is in the details. Early Childhood leaders enter this effort with distrust all around. This distrust is borne out of years of the different departments (Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and the Ohio Department of Education, in particular) establishing programs and services which they truly believe are in the very best interest of children. To this end Ohio has two sets of licensing procedures and standards, two entirely different professional development standards and infrastructures, two different approaches to higher education. 

The two departments start from entirely different places. ODE is focused on education regardless of a family’s work status or income. And the underlying purpose of ODJFS to ensure quality settings for children whose parents work in low-wage jobs. On the personal level (for don’t most things come down to the personal level), there is a long history of personnel from one department showing disrespect and misunderstanding toward the others’ systems and goals.

The plan is to join staff from education, health, mental health, family support, special needs and early intervention under one roof, and one leadership – and to create a great team on a playing field which, prior to this consolidation, was (is) littered with silos. I’m rooting for a winner, where children and families can be better served with fewer resources, and I hope that Ohio can create a model for other states. However, there is a long way to go, and it is going to take respect and compromise that has yet to surface.

I think, however, that it can be done. I’m rooting for the team – and for the children.

City Child Care Licensing Round II

A few weeks ago I wrote about the value of Cincinnati’s child care licensing law – and a proposal to preserve only a few of the provisions. I testified before the Board of Health and followed up with letters to the Commissioner, the Chairman and two City elected officials. Last night the Board of Health met again and eliminated the entire ordinance without a word about alternative plans. The ordinance is officially dead and gone after 41 years of protecting children.`

HOWEVER, I am pushing hard for a task force to consider our proposal to have child-to-staff ratios and square footage re-introduced. Among some former supporters of the City law there is some ambivalence because of the tough economic situation and because there are some flaws in the law as it was. However, those same (former) supporters have expressed a desire to restore the best of the law. While I haven’t heard back from anyone at the Health Department, I approached their public information officer last evening at the meeting and learned that Commissioner Noble Maseru has referred the issue to their attorney. We know from past experience that the attorney will warn against licensing, but we have had it for more than 40 years with no law suits or even threats, so I’m not buying that as a barrier. As you can see, there is still fight in me for this – particularly for the infant ratios! 

Loss of the City standards adds an extra burden on our community’s voluntary efforts to increase school readiness. I hope you will join 4C in the effort to restore some of the standards. If you know anyone at the Board of Health or the Mayor, you might make a call!

Two federal bills that might help

I’m often asked if there is anything new coming out of Congress that will advance early care and education. With all the drastic state cuts, early childhood advocates are looking for ways to fill the budget gaps and sustain the gains of recent years. The stimulus bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 – ARRA) has already provided some relief – expansion of Head Start and early Head Start, for example, and general funding for states. Ohio has plugged a big child care budget shortfall with these temporary funds, and there is a lot of anxiety about what will happen when those dollars run out. 

There are currently many bills wending their way through the system in Washington. Most of these are unlikely to ever see the light of day, but there are two that could find their way to Ohio and Kentucky. The first is called Race to the Top, and it is part of ARRA. This is a competitive grant program to reward states (and their local school districts) for education reform that increases student achievement. And of course, having children ready for kindergarten is a critical component. We hope Ohio and Kentucky are among the recipients of this $4.3 billion fund. 

The second is called the Early Learning Challenge Grant and is part of HR 3221 – the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. This legislation is specifically designed to increase the number of children from low-income families enrolled in high-quality early learning settings, and to improve school readiness for all children. This also would be a competitive grant for which our Oho and Kentucky would have to apply. The proposed amount is $1 billion per year for seven years. Ohio is already positioning itself to be one of the selected states. 

We will be tracking the progress of this legislation, and I’ll let you know what happens.