An early childhood education group is about to propose a voluntary rating system for child-care facilities that would extend state aid to parents, day-care providers and teachers.
If enacted by the Legislature, the incentives would improve child-care facilities and provide a way for parents to judge their quality. Lawmakers in 2004 rejected a mandatory rating system.
A report from First Steps, an agency created to help prepare children for school, will formalize the recommendations by the end of January, First Steps director Susan DeVenny said Monday.
DeVenny would not provide details of the plan, which is in the final stages of being prepared for Gov. Mark Sanford and lawmakers.
But generally, the recommendations to improve the state’s 3,700 facilities authorized to keep 180,000 children daily include:
• Piggyback onto a federally funded incentive program, but add two new ratings for quality
• Extend incentives beyond parents to day-care providers and teachers
• Improve the state’s child-care tax credit by making it available to the poorest families, and hinge the size of the credit to the quality of day care
• Encourage tougher teacher-qualification standards
• Ease the price tag for the program during a tight budget year by suggesting a three-year funding period
“The (First Steps) task force report will recommend a quality-based incentive system,” DeVenny said. “What we’re doing is tweaking the existing system.”
She acknowledged this will be a tough year to get money for new programs.
“We’re looking first at the dollars that are in play,” DeVenny said, referring to some of her agency’s $20 million budget.
The proposal would not seek to divert any of the Department of Social Services’ budget for child-care programs, she said. But she said it might seek different uses of money for the state’s child-care regulators. DeVenny would not elaborate.
Rep. Rex Rice, R-Pickens, and a member of the House budget-writing committee, said the Legislature is likely to be especially tightfisted this year.
“We’re looking at agency cuts already,” he said. “I think it will be difficult to find any new money for any new programs.”
Rice, who championed an ill-fated attempt to fine day cares that are continually cited for regulatory infractions, said a voluntary rating system might work if the industry and regulators rally around it.
“My experience has been that it’s very difficult to come to any agreement with the day-care people, DSS and First Steps on anything.”
Critics say some child-care industry leaders quietly kill attempts to legislate higher standards by arguing that higher standards would force increases in day-care prices.
But a voluntary system could work because it would pressure substandard facilities to upgrade in order to keep children, Rice said.
Day cares may be registered or licensed. Licensed facilities meet tougher quality standards and are subject to closer regulation. The best facilities have long waiting lists.
South Carolina is a poor state, and many S.C. parents cannot afford quality child care.
Since 1992, Washington has provided money to help.
About $80 million in federal funds assist parents of about 20,000 children, according to DSS. That is roughly 20 percent of the eligible families.
About two-thirds of licensed facilities receive federal money, said Virginia Williamson, chief attorney for DSS.
The program extends more money to the better day care centers, which are rated on three standards of quality.
DeVenny said the new proposal would add two quality standards and spread a combination of federal and state aid to day-care providers and teachers.
The industry needs to hold on to teachers. Turnover is a big problem because of low pay and siphoning of educated workersby schools. State law requires a high school education, but many less-educated caretakers are grandfathered under older statutes.
DeVenny said the recommendations also will seek to improve the state’s $210-per-child tax credit that few families use. She would not say how.
The recommendations are based on research by the task force, which comprises child-care providers, regulators and experts in early childhood education.