ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 10, 1996 TAG: 9610100106
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ELIZABETH SIMPSON LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
A council charged with streamlining state regulations for day-care centers is proposing changes that some early-education experts say will damage the child-care quality.
The Child Day Care Council, which is appointed by the governor, is proposing a raft of changes, but three are attracting the most concern:
One, dropping the requirement that the staff person in charge of a child-care class have a high school diploma. Two, eliminating the requirement that a center director have either a college degree or 48 semester hours of college education, and substituting three years of experience instead. And three, increasing the staff-student ratio of 4-year-old children from 12 children per staff person to 15 children.
``This is a giant leap backwards,'' said Carol Whitener, state president of the Virginia Association for Early Childhood Education. ``This puts us in danger of warehousing children.''
Child Day Care Council members contend the changes will help increase the amount of child-care available, a critical need during the welfare reform that is already under way in the state.
``When you bog people down with regulation, it's a discouragement to opening child-care centers,'' said Sharon Jones, chairwoman of the council and owner of several child-care centers in the Charlottesville area. ``We don't want to make situations unsafe for children, but we have been told to look at what's burdensome, and what's driving up the cost of day care.''
The council is expected to approve the final draft of the proposals in Richmond today. The proposal will then be sent to the state's secretary of Health and Human Services for review, and the Department of Planning and Budget for an economic analysis.
Once those reviews are made, parents and other community members will be invited to comment on the changes during a 60-day public comment period, which is expected to take place early next year. Public hearings also will be held across the state at that time.
Child-care advocates are already urging parents and others to write legislators, members of the council and the governor to oppose the changes.
``It sets us back without question,'' said Malcolm Cole, who directs a child-care center for the University of Virginia's Health Sciences Center. ``When you start hitting crucial elements like training and ratio, you put the safety of children at greater risk. And I think we'll pay for it in the long run.''
Cole, who also belongs to the Virginia Association for Early Childhood Education, has sent letters to the parents of the 100 children at his center in hopes of putting the brakes on the regulations.
Norfolk parent Lawanda Smith said she thinks reducing the child-staff ratio of centers will work against her children. ``Personally, I don't like it,'' said Smith, who has a 1-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. ``The more kids they have to watch, the less time for each kid.''
Smith also thinks that the less formal education her children's day-care teachers and directors have, the less her children will learn. ``I feel like if they've gone to college, they know what to expect from kids, so they can motivate them more.''
But as the operator of a child-care center, Jones said educational degrees don't always make the difference.
``A degree doesn't guarantee that a person relates well to children,'' she said. ``Sometimes you just can't regulate that. I have had staff that have had college degrees and master's degrees, and sometimes they have a lot of head knowledge, but very little heart knowledge.''
The 18-member council is acting on a directive from Gov. George Allen for all state agencies to review regulations, and strike those that are burdensome or that interfere in ``private enterprise and in the lives of Virginia's citizens.''
Besides changing minimum requirements for staff and directors, the council also has rewritten regulations to make them clearer and to eliminate regulations that are duplicative.
For instance, Jones said three pages of requirements for asbestos control were deleted simply by requiring centers to have an inspection by a state-approved asbestos inspector.
But some excised regulations are being viewed with alarm by Whitener and Cole. For instance, one deleted passage of the code requires a center to permit nursing mothers to breastfeed their children at the center. Another deleted regulation says center staff should respect a child's primary language.
Jones said those regulations were ``touchy-feely'' policies that each center should decide, rather than being part of the state code.
While some child-care providers may appreciate the more lenient regulations, some question the impact on day-care quality.
``A lot of child-care centers are already not complying with the minimum standards,'' said Pam Warner, director of the Children's Workshop, a child-care center in Norfolk. ``If they reduce them more, it's going to be a free-for-all.''
LENGTH: Medium: 91 linesby CNB