Regulation of Family Care Questioned

04/24/2008

Regulation of Family Care Questioned

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand, stimulating progress.
Albert Einstein

A report, Leaving Children to Chance, released by the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies takes a close look at the standards and oversight for small (up to six children) family child care programs. In the Foreword of the report, NACCRRA's Executive Director Linda Smith offers this chilling reflection...

"More than 1.7 million children under age six are in family child care homes every week. And yet, for the most part, our research on family child care policies found that most states do little to protect children while they are in family child care homes. Only 12 states begin to license family child care when one unrelated child is cared for in the home. The rest have widely varying thresholds, with South Dakota at the end of the spectrum: only with the existence of the 13th child does South Dakota regulate family child care homes. We chose 14 basic elements of quality child care to review and score the states. No state received the maximum allowable points. Only one state [Oklahoma] received a score of even 75 percent. Fifteen states scored zero because they do not inspect family child care homes prior to issuing a license, allow more than six children to be present without regulation, or do not license small family child care homes. Of those states with a score, the average score was 60 out of a possible 140....

"It is our hope that policymakers at the federal and state level will be motivated to protect children's safety and help insure their healthy development.... Together we can make a difference."

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