Child Care Rules Regulators Cut

Positions for five employees who would have been charged with improving enforcement of child care regulations have been axed due to state budget woes.

Gov. Chris Gregoire got the Legislature to sign off on $435,000 for the positions in her supplemental 2008 operating budget, but the positions were not included in the 2009-11 budget.

Bette Hyde, director of the Department of Early Learning, said Thursday she tried to save the positions.

"Certainly we at DEL are concerned about and committed to maintaining quality in licensed child care, and we're exploring ways we can do that even with the current budget situation our state faces," Hyde said.

"Every area of state government is feeling cuts, and we are no exception. We have to help ensure the safety and health of children in child care with the resources we've got," Hyde said.

Gregoire made the budget request in December 2007, a month after a Columbian investigation found that roughly 1 in 10 Clark County child care facilities have repeatedly violated health and safety regulations with little or no consequence.

Gregoire thought the five new employees would enable the DEL to set up a team approach to enforcement actions.

She had planned to have two of the new employees work from the state office to coordinate with a safety-improvement worker in each of the state's three regional offices to review cases. The tie to the state office was meant to help local licensers.

The idea of enforcement officers was also supported by outside experts, assembled by the state Office of Financial Management after a licensed Spokane child care provider with a long history of problems threw a 23-month-old toddler on her head in 2004. The girl suffered permanent brain damage, and her family negotiated a $4.5 million settlement with the state.

The experts recommended separating the licensing and enforcement functions.

Hyde's predecessor, Jone Bosworth, told the Columbian in 2007 that "it is tremendously difficult (for licensers) to balance between providing mentoring, coaching and technical assistance and … also doing assessment and investigative work and taking licensing actions."

Bosworth was hired in 2006 as the first director of the DEL, an agency created by Gregoire to, among other things, transform licensed child care into quality early education that prepares children for kindergarten.

Full text available at The Columbian.