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Showing stories 1 - 15 of 164.
NJ - NORWESCAP introduces ‘Together 4 Quality’ accredidation program child care
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Monday, August 27 @ 12:01:46 EDT by kkurth
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NORWESCAP Child and Family Resource Services, the local child care resource and referral agency for Hunterdon, Sussex and Warren Counties, is prepared to introduce “Together 4 Quality,” an accreditation project.
The purpose of this new project is to enhance the quality of center based care and registered family child care in northwest New Jersey.
“Research proves that quality early care and education experiences have an impact on children’s later school success,” states Antonette Franklin, staff member at Child and Family Resource Services.
“NORWESCAP Child and Family Resource Services has partnered with nineteen child care programs to increase the number of accredited child care programs available for children and families,” adds Sharon Giacchino, director.
“Each child care program will select a State approved national accreditation to pursue.”
Currently in Sussex County, there are four accredited child care programs. “Together 4 Quality” will increase that number to eleven.
NORWESCAP Child and Family Resource Services’ team of child care specialists and child care health consultants will conduct several research based rating scales to gather information on program services and assist each child care program in developing a quality improvement plan.
Through free on-site technical assistance and training, NORWESCAP staff will work with programs to navigate accreditation standards, as well as implement policy and environmental changes that affect the quality of services offered to children and families.
The child care programs selected to participate in the project in Sussex County are Blessed Beginnings Preschool and Kindergarten; Great Beginnings Early Childhood Learning Center; Rainbows of Learning; Family Child Care Provider- Jacqueline Schmitt; Smart Start Too; and the Sussex County YMCA After School Program.
At a recent project kick-off celebration, directors and key staff members participated in accreditation training. Representatives from both the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the National Early Childhood Program Accreditation were present to give overviews of their quality standards.
During the day’s events, directors shared their thought about “Together 4 Quality” and accreditation.
“Accreditation is a visible way to validate our hard work and high standards,” according to Karen Rothstadt, director of Great Beginnings Early Childhood Learning Center in Hardyston.
“The staff at NORWESCAP CFRS has been a very positive professional influence to the school. Their proactive attitudes and support will surely be a tremendous help.”
When asked how accreditation will impact Great Beginnings, Rothstadt responds, “Our families are very supportive and accreditation will help us further unify our goals with the parents.”
Full text available at Straus Newspapers
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FL - Manatee considers stricter child care rules
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Tuesday, August 21 @ 10:00:48 EDT by kkurth
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About 100 at-home day care centers throughout Manatee have long been among the least regulated in the state.
Now, the County Commission is considering a resolution that would force these facilities to become state licensed, a designation requiring stricter staff training and regular inspections.
"It's just a good thing for the community," said Brian Murphy, chairman of the Early Learning Coalition of Manatee County. "It's for the safety of the children. At least they will have someone looking in."
Private day care centers are either "registered" or licensed. Registered facilities must adhere to state child-care regulations, but are inspected only when state officials receive a complaint. About 500 children throughout the county attend registered day care centers.
Licensed centers require more staff training. The state Department of Children and Families inspects them at least twice a year. More than 100 Manatee day care centers are licensed.
The Early Learning Coalition has been pushing for the measure since this spring. The group's efforts were driven in part by the May 2006 drowning of an 18-month-old boy at a registered, but not licensed, Manatee day care center.
Commissioners will consider the proposal at their regular meeting Tuesday.
Home day care facilities may supervise a maximum of 10 children at any given time.
Sarasota County already requires at-home day care facilities to be licensed. Charlotte County does not.
The proposed regulations would not apply to family baby sitters. Rather, the state defines day care centers as settings where two or more unrelated children are regularly supervised in exchange for money.
Full text available at the Herald Tribune
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TX - Campaign aims to put parents on watch for unregulated child care providers
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Friday, August 10 @ 09:48:55 EDT by kkurth
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The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is putting parents on alert of the dangers of unlicensed child-care providers.
Officials are launching a campaign called "Don't be in the dark about child care," urging parents to check up on the caregivers and encouraging the caregivers to get licensed.
The department says while unlicensed operators may be cheaper, they aren't necessarily safer.
"There are no checks and balances, there's no oversight, there's no guarantees that the providers are trained to care for children," said Yvette Gutierrez, an investigator with the San Antonio Department of Child Care Licensing. "There are no criminal background checks done on these providers. They provide no ongoing training. There's nobody going out inspecting the homes to ensure that it's safe."
In 2006, 18 Texas children died in unregulated care, compared to 10 the previous year.
To find out if you child-care provider is operating legally, visit the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
Full text available at My San Antonio
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WY - State program offers boost to child care
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Thursday, August 09 @ 10:11:10 EDT by kkurth
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A program approved by the Wyoming Legislature this spring is offering grants and other support intended to improve the quality of child care in the state.
Called WY Quality Counts, the $1.4 million program is accepting applications from child care providers for scholarships and grants.
Shelli Stewart, the public-relations manager with the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services, said the program is offering $300,000 for grants allowing child care providers to get training. She said it's also offering $300,000 in scholarships, which child care providers can use to pursue college degrees or other programs.
The program has $100,000 set aside for "quality training," in which the Department of Workforce Services will provide regional training for child care providers, Stewart said. She said $100,000 is reserved for business training for providers. In addition to making satisfactory progress, child care providers receiving the funding must make a commitment to remain working for a Wyoming day care business for a reasonable time after completing the coursework, Stewart said.
"The whole thing is about quality, quality, quality," said Rick Imbrogno, program manager of WY Quality Counts.
Child care providers said they're excited about the program.
Jan Lawrence, director of Basic Beginnings day care in Laramie, said finding people who are trained to understand and nurture children in their early years is the top issue for parents and child care providers.
"So this is very exciting for us," Lawrence said. "We are watching and waiting."
Sue Erpelding, the operator of Bumblebees and Bears in Cheyenne, said that in the past, people have looked on child care providers as baby sitters, "people who just hung out with kids."
Erpelding said she supports increasing the availability of good child care and improving the level of learning.
"Offering that opportunity doesn't diminish, at all, all of the loving and nurturing that children need," Erpelding said. "I don't want to minimize that."
Full text available at the Billings Gazette
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VA - System in the works to rate child care
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Tuesday, August 07 @ 10:46:11 EDT by kkurth
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Most people are familiar with a five-star hotel or restaurant, but what are the qualities of a five-star child care center?
A rating system now being developed statewide for daycare centers and preschools might answer that question in coming years by helping Virginians become savvy consumers of these services, which range from grandmother-like home care to large-scale business chains.
"We are hoping by this fall that it will be implemented and tested in classrooms and child care facilities," said Kathy Glazer, executive director of the Working Group on Early Childhood Initiatives.
Created by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine last summer, the working group involves several state agencies that touch the lives of young children, including the departments of education, health and social services.
Their mission is to coordinate resources and information that would improve early education services. The governor has also charged the group with supporting his initiative to expand quality preschool access for all 4-year-olds in Virginia, Glazer said.
Since 1998, 13 states, including North Carolina and Maryland, have created rating systems to improve the care and education of children under the age of 5.
This year, four states - California, Florida, Michigan and North Dakota - have considered legislation to develop their own rating systems.
The working group has already adopted measurement tools created by the University of Virginia and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The tools cover more than 40 different aspects of preschool/day care operations, from the use of furniture and space to personal hygiene routines, instruction, interactions with children and parental involvement.
Once the General Assembly approves funding, day care providers and preschools could choose whether to participate in the rating program. Home-based businesses would be assessed as the program evolves.
A request for about $3 million made to the General Assembly to conduct a pilot rating system failed to receive funding during the last legislative session, Glazer said. However, state officials note the pilot is moving forward for the fall with local and private dollars.
Full text available at the Daily Press
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CA - Rating child care
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Thursday, July 26 @ 09:35:40 EDT by kkurth
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There's some good news for frazzled parents searching for a clean, safe place to drop off their little ones from 9 to 5: Selecting a day-care center could soon be as easy as choosing a hamburger joint or a pizza parlor.
As part of a Los Angeles County pilot program that kicks off next month, child-care centers and home day cares in nine communities will be inspected and assigned a rating from 1 to 5, with 5 being the best.
The new rating system aims to take some of the mystery out of the day-care evaluation process and give parents a rough idea about the quality of the center.
County officials hope 200 child-care centers and 400 homes in Inglewood, Long Beach, Palmdale, Pasadena, Pomona, Santa Monica, Wilmington, Florence/Firestone, and Pacoima/Arleta will participate in the voluntary program, called STEP. They also hope the new ratings will spur competition among day cares and boost quality.
"People in the county who provide child care should hop on this, because it will give parents another tool to pick a center," said Shannon Cole, assistant director at Around The Korner, a subsidized child-care center in Arleta that is funded by the state Department of Education and plans to participate.
The STEP program is new enough that most parents and providers haven't heard about it yet.
The county has scheduled tours and sessions to educate those groups starting in September.
But some parents with children in day care already say they love the idea.
"I think it's great," said Arlene Rodriguez, mother of 3-year-old Giselle Jimenez, who attends Around The Korner. "I would recommend the 5 (rating). When you go to a restaurant, you want to go to a name." She said she would consider sending her children to a 4-rated day care, but that would be the lowest.
Others say there's nothing wrong with the ratings system, but that evaluating a day care can't be done in one number.
"I used to be a chef, and that letter grade is just the health inspector's (opinion)," said Tanya Anton, a mother in Mar Vista. "You can have an A-rated kitchen that makes really bad food."
The idea of giving schools and child-care centers a quality rating isn't new. Los Angeles Universal Preschool, the state-funded program that establishes preschools for Los Angeles County 4-year-olds, started rating its schools on a 5-star scale in March 2005. The new system, which targets day cares, builds on the LAUP model, except it uses numbers instead of stars.
To earn a 1, a day-care center basically just needs a license to operate. Moving up the rating ladder requires better teacher-to-child ratios, more materials, support for special-needs kids and higher training levels for caregivers and accreditation.
Christina Alvarado, executive director of the Child Care Resource and Referral Network in Pasadena, said things that would earn a higher rating would be having a curriculum and some planning for daily activity, involving parents in a sort of mini-PTA and doing something to address special-needs kids.
Los Angeles County has about 10,500 licensed family-home day cares and 3,000 centers.
Legally, parents can care for their own family, plus one more family, without a license. If a parent is taking care of a third family of children, a license is required, said Laura Escobedo, child-care planning coordinator for the county.
Full text available at the Daily Bulletin
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Minnesota tests child care ratings
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Tuesday, July 17 @ 13:01:17 EDT by kkurth
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Parents struggling to choose the best preschool or day care for their children soon could get help as Minnesota begins testing a way to rate early education programs.
The first testing takes place in pilot programs targeting needy families in St. Paul, North Minneapolis, Wayzata and Blue Earth County. Child care centers, preschools and home sites in those areas can apply to be evaluated and rated.
Providers convening at the University of Minnesota today will see what the rating system and pilot programs will look like. The first ratings will be available for parents to use early next year.
The Department of Human Services will rate providers on a point system based on a variety of areas, including staff experience and qualifications, family education, adult-child interactions and the progress of children in the program.
Ann McCully, executive director of the Minnesota Child Care Resource and Referral Network, said the organization's staff gives parents information about how to search for quality programs. But staff members don't recommend specific programs.
"Parents have been asking for this kind of information for years," McCully said of the rating system. "Right now, they can find out whether a provider is licensed, but licensing is only the bare minimum. It puts the onus on the parents to figure out the rest, and that can be difficult."
A 2004 survey by Wilder Research Center found that 87 percent of parents would find it helpful if their community had ratings to help them decide on providers.
Studies also have found children enrolled in effective early-learning programs with parental-education components had higher graduation rates, were more likely to have health insurance and were less likely to have criminal records when compared with adults with similar backgrounds.
The four pilot programs aim to get those better results. Each of the four is tailored to the community it serves.
In St. Paul, for example, the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation funneled $15 million to give low-income parents in the city's North End and Frogtown neighborhoods the information and resources they need to get their children into affordable, high-quality child care settings.
The city and Ramsey County Public Health will identify newborns who would benefit from the program. Each family will get a mentor to visit the home and coach them on parenting skills, health and nutrition, and how to pick out the best child care and education programs.
At age 3, children in the pilot programs are eligible for up to $13,000 a year for two years to attend any preschool or child care setting approved by the program.
Duane Benson, executive director for the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation, said one goal is to provide low-income parents and their children the same opportunities and access that middle class families have to quality early-learning programs.
Full text available at the Pioneer Press
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SC - Child-care workers to look for problems
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Friday, July 06 @ 09:27:17 EDT by kkurth
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Child-care providers are on the front line of defense against child abuse and neglect, experts say, and need to be trained to identify and report signs of mistreatment.
That’s why an S.C. nonprofit group and other organizations statewide are participating this summer in a national project to help child-care providers curb the problem.
Georgetown County First Steps, a branch of a statewide nonprofit group whose goal is to prepare children for school, will likely work with Grand Strand day cares starting in September to provide day-care workers with training in identifying signs of abuse and neglect.
“We’re trying to identify problems early on, not only working with the parents, but working with child-care providers because they’re the ones who spend an awful lot of time with these children,” said Pamela Peterson, program coordinator with First Steps of Georgetown County.
State and local data from across the Grand Strand and Brunswick County, N.C., show that in some areas, the number of reports of abuse and neglect are shrinking while the number of confirmed cases has increased.
Child abuse — physically, sexually or psychologically harming a child younger than 18 — and child neglect — not meeting a child’s needs — are still far too common, reports show.
“You can help a child, or you can hurt a child. It starts right here at the early beginning. These are the critical years for our young children,” said Lillian Reid, director of the Pawleys Island Civic Club Child Care Center, who plans to participate in the project.
The project — started by a nonprofit called Zero to Three National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families — recently expanded from 12 states to 18 states, including South Carolina. It is designed to teach child-care providers how to recognize and deal with abuse or neglect.
They’ll learn to build relationships with families, respond supportively to troubled families and understand the effects of abuse on a young child’s emotional, social and brain development.
Groups statewide — including the state Department of Social Services, Prevent Child Abuse South Carolina and S.C. First Steps — received training this summer to teach child-care providers about abuse and neglect.
“The saying, ‘Everything I know, I learned in kindergarten,’ it’s not that you actually learned everything you know. Your brain developed and got ready to learn. Abuse and neglect can really have a detrimental effect on the developing brain,” Peterson said.
Some parents like that their day cares will get the lessons. The training also could help parents find out whether their children are being abused by someone else, said Jackie Johnson, who has two daughters who attend the Pawleys Island child-care center.
“We’re not aware of things sometimes when our kids go to other people’s houses,” she said.
Full text available at The State
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Study links health to child care equipment
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Tuesday, July 03 @ 10:46:31 EDT by kkurth
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Fewer children and workers at out-of-home day care centers would get sick if the centers had better equipment for changing diapers, washing hands and preparing food, according to a study.
Automatic faucets and foot-activated, rollout bins for diaper disposal can help reduce the spread of infectious diseases. But those and other upgrades are costly: roughly $10,000 per center, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The report appeared in Monday's edition of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
About 70 percent of U.S. children spend at least part of the day with caregivers other than their parents and with children who are not their siblings, according to the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Research shows children are more likely to get sick in those environments, the study said.
For the report, researchers monitored 23 pairs of child care centers in North Carolina, matched by size and license level. Half the centers received around $7,000 worth of equipment upgrades - which cost another $3,000 to install - while the other group used existing equipment. Both groups received sanitation and hygiene training.
The upgrades also featured cast polymer tabletops with impermeable, seamless surfaces for preparing food, changing diapers and washing hands. All the equipment was made by the Winterville, N.C.-based The Sabre Companies LLC.
After about seven months, both groups improved hygiene, but the group with higher-grade equipment fared better. For children, that group recorded less than one illness per 100 days compared with 1.58 illnesses at the day care centers using unchanged equipment, the study said.
Staff in these centers with new equipment were absent less than half as often as the other workers during the study period. Fewer sick workers can significantly improve a day care environment, researchers said.
Full text available at the San Luis Obispo
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MS - Barbour urges private child care providers to enhance education
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Friday, June 29 @ 10:13:33 EDT by kkurth
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Effective early education will be essential to the continuing economic growth of the state, Gov. Haley Barbour said today.
“The people coming here expect much more, and we have to make sure that the pipeline is filled with workers whose education is good enough that they can do these kinds of jobs,” he said.
Barbour delivered the keynote address to close to 100 people gathered at the Downtown Marriott for the Mississippi Early Childhood Education Meeting in Jackson.
A panel of early education officials and private sector supporters also spoke at the meeting, held for the third year in a row.
Barbour said he expects education bills to meet with more success this year in the state legislature, as representatives realize businesses such as Chevron and Mississippi Power have become heavily involved in early education initiatives.
The state must continue to develop “commonsensical” plans to improve early education, Barbour said, rejecting calls for state-funded pre-school programs.
The state currently spends $300 million a year on each grade, he said, more than $8,000 per student.
Barbour said the state must work to infuse private childcare services, which care for 81 percent of 4-year-old Mississippians, with educational value.
Newly-developed quality standards that give private facilities financial incentive to meet educational goals are the answer, he said.
Full text available at the Clarion Ledger
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CA - County to Begin Grading System for Child Care
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Tuesday, June 26 @ 10:54:28 EDT by kkurth
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The county will soon be launching a rating system for child care facilities to help parents make better choices for their children.
The voluntarily program - which starts in July - will operate in a manner similar to the county's restaurant grading system. The Steps to Excellence Program will start by assessing 200 child care centers and 400 family child care centers throughout the county.
"This is a great opportunity to give parents access to clear, concise information about child care centers that they may not have the time or the ability to research on their own," said Supervisor Don Knabe in a statement.
The program will assess safety, program quality, teacher qualifications and whether they can accommodate children with special needs.
Los Angeles County parents spend more than $1.4 billion on child care services annually. Forty-one percent of parents throughout the county reported that a primary barrier to finding care for their child was the unsatisfactory quality of care given at child care facilities, according to a county report titled "The ABCs of Child Care: Access, Barriers, Concerns."
There are about 56,000 children under 5 years of age attending child care facilities in the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys, according to the report. The report also noted that 40 percent of parents in the Santa Clarita and San Fernando Valleys reported having difficulty finding affordable child care facilities that provide quality care.
Full text available at the Signal
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CA - L.A. Child Care Centers To Get Official Ratings
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Thursday, June 21 @ 09:58:51 EDT by kkurth
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A system to rate Los Angeles County child care centers will go into effect next month, county officials said Wednesday.
As part of the Steps to Excellence Program, licensed child care centers will be encouraged to report compliance with state regulations, teacher-to-child ratios, and their policies regarding special-needs children.
Under the pilot program, 200 child care centers and 400 family care homes will be evaluated in in Inglewood, Long Beach, Palmdale, Pasadena, Pomona, Santa Monica, Florence/Firestone, Wilmington and Pacoima.
The program will be funded by Los Angeles County, the state Department of Education and the First 5 LA Commission.
There are 3,070 licensed child development centers and 10,962 licensed family child care homes in Los Angeles County.
"This is a great opportunity to give parents access to clear, concise information about child care centers that they may not have time or the ability to research on their own," Knabe said.
"The STEP program will assess six key areas that all parents would want to know about a child care setting, including safety, program quality, teacher qualifications, and whether or not they can accommodate kids with special needs."
Los Angles Universal Preschool officials use a similar rating system to evaluate their classrooms. Fourteen states also use a system to assess the quality of child care centers.
Full text available at CBS2.com
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LA - House panel approves Blanco's child care tax breaks
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Tuesday, June 19 @ 13:53:35 EDT by kkurth
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Part of Gov. Kathleen Blanco's package of tax breaks moved forward on Monday under a bill that would give tax relief to low-income parents, up to $1,500 per child, for the cost of day care.
The measure would also reward day care facilities for improving their programs, and give their employees a tax break.
Sen. Ann Duplessis, D-New Orleans, the sponsor, said the tax credits would ease the "daunting experience" of finding affordable day care while helping transform the state's day care facilities into "the centers for excellence we so desperately need."
The House's tax committee approved the Senate-backed measure without objection on Monday, sending it to the full House.
The plan would represent $26 million in lost tax revenue for the state, part of the $150 million in tax breaks that Blanco is backing in the legislative session that ends June 28.
The Duplessis bill would direct the state Department of Social Services to create a new rating system for day cares, with the top programs getting five stars and the worst getting a single star.
Qualified parents could get a refundable state income tax credit of $750 for enrolling a child in a day care program that received two stars. Parents could get a maximum of $1,500 per child, for enrolling a child in a program getting the highest score of five stars.
Day care facilities would also get a break depending on the rating they receive from DSS, with "two-star" programs getting $750 per child, and the top programs getting $1,500.
Directors and staff of day cares would also be eligible for income tax breaks ranging from $1,500 to $3,000.
Full text available at the Daily Comet
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ID - Child care providers left to reform themselves
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Friday, June 15 @ 11:09:43 EDT by kkurth
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In Gena Anderson's eyes, the Idaho Legislature failed greatly when it refused to strengthen day care safety standards this spring.
But Anderson, president of the Snake River Association for the Education of Young Children, said her organization can do little but wait and support its state-level group's efforts to revive a bill that will further regulate in-home day care.
"Our Idaho association group is still working on the legislative piece," Anderson said. "We always encourage everyone to continue to get educated."
While a few cities, such as Idaho Falls, are working on their own day care standards in the wake of the Legislature's inaction, nothing similar is in the works in Twin Falls. Mitch Humble, Twin Falls community development director, said city officials have not considered their own day care standards because they consider the state to have a good program and think a city policy would be redundant.
"If the state's going to do it, we don't need to redo it," Humble said. "I know we've taken up that same opinion on things like environmental concerns."
In the absence of city regulations, some members of the industry may be taking reform into their own hands. Roger and Julie Taylor, who operate New Life Preschool and Daycare out of their home in Pocatello, launched the National Child Care Connection last month. The Web-based service, which they spent two years preparing, is intended to provide parents with one central location to compare and choose child care services - for now in Idaho, but eventually nationwide.
The site is also intended to help smaller day cares advertise themselves, improving their chances of filling all their open spots and staying in business, Julie Taylor said. For $9.95 a month, day care providers can have their class ratios, age ranges, prices and details about their services posted on the company's Web site, www.nationalccc.com. For $15.95 a month, providers can have their own Web space on the site.
Julie Taylor said the site's ability to show side-by-side comparisons of day care centers will cause them to compete, improving their offerings.
"It causes people to rise to the occasion," she said. "This side-by-side-type setting will naturally cause some improvement in child care."
Full text available at the Times-News
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TN - Child care rating system confuses parents
Submitted by kkurth. Posted on Tuesday, May 29 @ 08:45:06 EDT by kkurth
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Julia Stewart didn't use the state's rating system to help pick her 7-year-old granddaughter's child care, so much as she used her observations of staff, facility and activities. That the YMCA's Fun Company at Glencliff Elementary got two stars on a three-star scale was less important to her.
"There's something personal missing sometimes," Stewart, 57, said of the rating system.
The belief that anything less than three stars is substandard is a misperception the state wants to clear up. In the state's Star Quality Program, zero stars means a facility meets licensing standards. Three stars means it meets the state's highest standards.
The ratings are part of a more rigorous child-care regulation system that parents say has led to improvements in care. While acknowledging it isn't perfect, they say it's helped by establishing uniform standards, encouraging professional development and rewarding better performers.
"It prompted us to really examine the quality of what we're doing with our youngest learners," said Beth Quick, an associate professor with Tennessee State University's college of education.
Others argue that the child-care system, enacted six years ago, is under-funded and that the rating system doesn't accurately reflect quality of care.
Several child-care incidents related to licensing have made the news in recent weeks.
In Smyrna, authorities closed two unlicensed child-care operations last week, and they're investigating the April 30 death of a baby who was in the care of a third unlicensed provider. In Lafayette, officials shut down a day care in May after a worker was accused of hiding three infants in a storage room during a state inspection, possibly to conceal a lack of staffing.
Beginning in 2000, the Department of Human Services, prompted by the deaths of two children left in vans by day-care workers in 1999, pursued a dramatic reform of its licensing process, setting up a rated licensing system, issuing report cards for all licensed child-care agencies, hiring additional staff and requiring more frequent inspections.
"It has a lot of components that has helped child care improve," said Sara Longhini, director of the Fannie Battle Day Home for Children, a three-star facility.
The rating system is one such component. Some parents may feel they're dropping the ball by going to anything less than a three-star day-care center.
"One star does not mean bad," said Elaine Piper, a Davidson County coordinator for the Tennessee Child Care Resource and Referral Network. "One star is good. One star is a step above licensing standards."
There's no question, however, that three-star centers have their advantages.
Fannie Battle benefits from its rating by getting more state funding and being eligible to serve as a state pre-kindergarten site. Grant agencies also frequently require nonprofit child-care facilities like Fannie Battle to have three stars, Longhini said.
In any profession, people need to know what standards they need to meet and excel, Longhini said. The rated licensing system spells out what a day care needs to be licensed or get one to three stars. That also helps parents, giving them ways of comparing child care.
"I feel it's good because I feel like the day care should be monitored," said Nashville mom Marian Carden, 32. Her 5-year-old daughter has been going to Fannie Battle for two years. "That's for the benefit of the child."
Not all providers or parents agree with the state's ratings system. At the Primrose School of Hendersonville, a $3 million facility that serves about 160 children ages 6 weeks to 5 years old, owner Jason McGee says he feels the system has good intentions but can be misleading.
Primrose, open two years, scored zero stars, leaving McGee flabbergasted.
The Lafayette facility was a three-star center, he noted.
"I'm not against being critiqued and told what I can do better," McGee said. "To have certified teachers with bachelor's and master's degrees, everybody's first aid- and CPR-certified, a defibrillator on site, teach two different foreign languages - we go above and beyond what anybody requires us to do."
He cited the center's playground as an example. Primrose installed a state-of-the-art rubberized surface around its playground, which the state playground inspector passed with flying colors. The DHS inspector, unfamiliar with the surface, gave it low marks, McGee said.
Enrollment has nevertheless continued to increase. The center has a year-and-a-half waiting list.
Full text available at wbir.com
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