After 22 years of deep opposition, sponsors Sen. Tim Corder, R-Mountain Home, and Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d'Alene, won a small victory recently for children in child care. Child-care operators who care for seven or more unrelated children must be licensed, and those with four or more must get criminal background checks!
This may not seem like much; however, current Idaho law does not require child-care facilities to have a license unless they care for 13 or more children; smaller day cares are unregulated, unless they're in one of fewer than a dozen cities in the state that have local regulations.
Although the bill is seen as a victory, the proposed child-care bill was heavily amended in the House, after the original bill won overwhelming support in the Senate earlier this year. The amendments significantly reduced requirements, and as Corder told colleagues, "these amendments change the focus from the children to the provider, from making it safe for children to making it easy for providers." However, he said, "We still need to do it. It's better than what we have right now."
Sadly, the amendments to the bill removed continuing education requirements, continuous background checks, alter fees, and remove health and fire safety standards and inspections for small child-care providers.
In Idaho, there are over 75,000 children under age 6 with working parents. These children are in some kind of child-care arrangement every day, every week. The quality of care that child-care providers offer could not be more important - not just for educating our children, but also for keeping them safe.
In a report that the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies issued based on an analysis of child-care policies in all 50 states in 2007 and an update that was released last month, Idaho ranked last. Even after the bill passed this year, due to all the amendments, Idaho will still be ranked at the bottom of the list for child-care safety and protection.
It was interesting to observe people's reactions to the basic child-care bill around the state this year. Either they knew about the lack of regulation and felt it was long overdue, or they didn't even know protections for children in child care didn't exist.
Some legislators even used the argument that small, rural providers shouldn't be held to the same standard as the big city providers because they would go out of business. So if you live in a small town, you shouldn't expect the same health and safety standards and provider education in your child care as you would if you lived in a larger city? Really?
The horrific stories we heard of children being abused, neglected and even killed in Idaho child-care centers and home facilities are a heartbreaking reminder that our society has changed. Our children need and deserve to be safe, loved and well-cared-for wherever they are. Working parents want to know that their children are safe when in the care of someone else. Working parents can't conduct their own background check.