Open Model Adopted for Child Care Rules

Earlier this month, the state Bureau of Child Care Licensing released a 117-page draft of proposed revisions to the rules that govern how licensed child-care providers in the state care for children.

The new guidelines incorporate changes in a number of areas, including licensing and permitting requirements, enforcement actions, health and safety, learning materials, rest and sleep periods, and training, among others.

What's important to note, however, is not just the actual changes in language, but the inclusive process that was used by the bureau to ensure the more than 1,000 child-care providers in the state had a voice in helping to shape those regulations.

Specifically, the bureau formed a task force that consisted of individuals with expertise in child-care issues, including state officials, education organizations, family child-care providers, business owners and other personnel.

The bureau also distributed a survey to all licensed, child-care programs and embarked on a series of public forums around the state to gather additional feedback to the regulations.

For their part, child-care providers seemed to appreciate the effort.

"This is definitely a step in the right direction," said Lynne Ouellette, director of the World Elementary & Small World Country Day School in Nashua. "Instead of being a group that comes in and monitors you, and comes in and says, 'You did this and this wrong,' this is more collaborative."

As an example, some providers complained that it was unfair to be cited with a "critical" violation for having a toy with sharp edges on the premises when the issue could be resolved immediately by removing the toy. Ultimately, the bureau agreed in those cases where the child-care provider had not been cited for a similar violation in the past.

As some of you may recall, The Telegraph took a strong interest in child-care safety and the state inspection process after reporting on the arrest of a 22-year-old child-care worker on molestation charges at a child-care center in Nashua in early 2006.

That incident served as the impetus for a four-day series of articles in July 2006 called "Who's Watching Your Child." Based on the examination of state inspection reports covering nearly 200 licensed child-care centers in Greater Nashua, the award-winning series found 425 critical violations had been recorded against 111 of those centers.

The series was accompanied by an online database – updated earlier this year – that contains copies of the actual inspection reports detailing any critical violations found among the region's more than 170 child-care centers in 15 communities.

The accompanying online search tool allows parents and others to search by either the name of the center or by town to determine if – and what type – of critical violations may have been found during state inspections dating back to the summer of 2006.

Full article available at the Nashua Telegraph.