The summit was organized after The Press published a series of articles and editorials spotlighting the fact that Idaho law does not require family child-care facilities to be subjected to background checks, child-care training or fire and health/safety inspections. About 50 stakeholders met at The Resort to close loopholes big enough to allow convicted felons to operate day cares.
Strategies were laid out. Support was garnered. Momentum had peaked, it seemed.
So, three years later, what has happened to Idaho's day care regulations?
"Nothing," said Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d'Alene, who has carried day care legislation for three years in the House. "Nothing has changed."
And, more than ever, new day care laws could be further away from reality.
"What's happened in the House is the very conservative element of the Republican Party has taken over, and so they are setting or controlling the agenda," said Sayler, the assistant minority leader. "I know there are Republicans who support it, and they don't understand the opposition to it. I think it's more of an ideological issue than a partisan one."
Sayler's day care legislation died in the House Health and Welfare Committee last session on a tie vote. Well-publicized comments made by lawmakers opposed to the proposed laws during the committee debate sparked letters to the editor statewide. Also stoking the fire was the release that week of a national
survey ranking Idaho dead last in the nation when it came to protecting its children in day-care facilities.
The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies based its rankings on caseloads for center inspectors, frequency of inspections, health and safety requirements, background checks, staff qualifications and activities offered to children.
Rep. Steven Thayne, R-Emmett, voted against the day care legislation last session in committee.
"If we adopted a pre-kindergarten program in Idaho, that's taking a step backwards," Thayne said earlier this week. "What we really need to is create more engaged parents -- that's what really works."
As a freshman, Thayne was appointed to chair the legislative Family Task Force this year, which has been holding meetings around the state. The task force is charged by the Legislature "To study the magnitude of the decline of the family since 1950; the effects the decline has had on state social policies; the reasons for the decline, and ways to strengthen the family."
Thayne pointed out that there already is some licensing in the state. Day cares that have 13 or more children enrolled are required to be fully licensed, and cities and counties can establish their own regulations as they see fit. Thayne said some legislators see it as a local control issue.
"Frankly, I'm not sure what good they're doing. If there's some serious problem, OK, but I think there are some other ways of looking at it," Thayne said.
Thayne said he and other representatives who voted against the day care bill last session may have been unfairly characterized by the media. Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Iona, was widely reported as saying, "What can we do to keep mom at home?" and that there was no substitute for families taking care of their children. Loertscher did not return phone calls last week.
"He should have said, 'Generally, mothers do a better job. What can we do to help that?' That would have softened that," Thayne said.
Thayne is looking for solutions that don't involve government regulation.
"We do know incentives work. We use them all the time. We just haven't used them on this critical issue," Thayne said. "I'd like to pay $1,000 to the parents of every child who comes to kindergarten ready to learn. You give kids a short test when they get to kindergarten and see if they're ready to go."
Thayne said he knows the idea is out of the box, and he isn't aware of any other state that has tried it, but "Idaho's a little different than the rest of the nation."
Cathy Kowalski, public policy chair for the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children, has been driving to Boise from North Idaho to push for new day care laws for more than 10 years.
Idaho is different from the rest of the nation, she said, adding it is ignoring realities of modern society at the expense of its children's health and safety.
"The makeup of the family has changed and not all the changes are good," Kowalski said. "You can look back and say that shouldn't happen, but you can't ignore the future.
"Economics require they work, and to penalize the children of working parents by not having adequate health and safety standards statewide is unconscionable."