New Regs Miff Some Local Child Care Providers
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
Licensed child care providers around Indiana will gather at their local post offices this weekend to send a message to Gov. Joe Kernan.
They will be sending shoes. Lots of shoes.
The message will be "Walk a Day in My Shoes" and invites the governor and state legislators to visit licensed home child care providers in their areas.
Kosciusko County-area providers will meet at the Warsaw post office at 10 a.m. Saturday to send their message.
The reason for the message will be the providers' opposition to proposed changes in the requirements for child care providers.
One of the regulations causing the most uproar is one sentence: "Children shall not be left unattended and shall be supervised at all times within sight and sound."
"They've taken the common sense out of this," said Donna Mosco, who has three licenses in Pierceton.
While the rule does allow for brief bathroom privileges for providers, it still causes other headaches.
Nicole Bowers, of Superstars Child Care in Winona Lake, said, "The whole 'sight and sound' thing doesn't leave much privacy. ... I don't need to watch the children sleep. I understand that they need to be in a safe place, but I don't really need to sit there and watch them sleep."
Adding the sight and sound regulation to other provisions causes even more problems. The proposed regulations (which are not yet law but are still being enforced by the state) include Section 24, "child care home capacity," which states that the home care facility's capacity, or number of children the caregiver can take in, includes "the licensee's related children under 7 years of age."
That means, said Ann Wiesehan of Annie's Countryside Day Care in Mentone, that child care providers' own children younger than age 7 cannot go to their own rooms and nap or play because they, like all the other children, must be within sight and sound of her at all times.
The same sight and sound provision, Wiesehan said, also takes away parental rights in some instances.
"If a parent wants an infant separated, say, at naptime, I can't do it," she said.
Most providers say the children they care for are within sight and sound for the most part anyway, but there are times, such as helping a toddler with toilet training, when privacy is a concern.
"I don't want to have to take all the other kids into the bathroom every time," said Angela Miller of Syracuse.
Other changes that concern child care providers include requiring a minimum of 35 square feet for each child and a state-sponsored Web site that includes the caregivers' addresses and phone numbers.
The Web site at one time even included links to MapQuest, with directions to the caregivers' homes, Mosco said, but that has since been taken off. Still, providers don't like the fact that anyone anywhere can get their addresses.
Monica Boyer, of Little Treasures Day Care, in Warsaw, said two local licensed home care centers already have closed because of the new regulations.
"That's 30 kids that are out on the streets," she said.
Most providers agree that the state has an interest in the welfare of children, but that interest can be taken too far.
"I understand that they want to have a better quality of child care," Wiesehan said, "but in the same respect they're tying our hands behind our backs." [[In-content Ad]]
Licensed child care providers around Indiana will gather at their local post offices this weekend to send a message to Gov. Joe Kernan.
They will be sending shoes. Lots of shoes.
The message will be "Walk a Day in My Shoes" and invites the governor and state legislators to visit licensed home child care providers in their areas.
Kosciusko County-area providers will meet at the Warsaw post office at 10 a.m. Saturday to send their message.
The reason for the message will be the providers' opposition to proposed changes in the requirements for child care providers.
One of the regulations causing the most uproar is one sentence: "Children shall not be left unattended and shall be supervised at all times within sight and sound."
"They've taken the common sense out of this," said Donna Mosco, who has three licenses in Pierceton.
While the rule does allow for brief bathroom privileges for providers, it still causes other headaches.
Nicole Bowers, of Superstars Child Care in Winona Lake, said, "The whole 'sight and sound' thing doesn't leave much privacy. ... I don't need to watch the children sleep. I understand that they need to be in a safe place, but I don't really need to sit there and watch them sleep."
Adding the sight and sound regulation to other provisions causes even more problems. The proposed regulations (which are not yet law but are still being enforced by the state) include Section 24, "child care home capacity," which states that the home care facility's capacity, or number of children the caregiver can take in, includes "the licensee's related children under 7 years of age."
That means, said Ann Wiesehan of Annie's Countryside Day Care in Mentone, that child care providers' own children younger than age 7 cannot go to their own rooms and nap or play because they, like all the other children, must be within sight and sound of her at all times.
The same sight and sound provision, Wiesehan said, also takes away parental rights in some instances.
"If a parent wants an infant separated, say, at naptime, I can't do it," she said.
Most providers say the children they care for are within sight and sound for the most part anyway, but there are times, such as helping a toddler with toilet training, when privacy is a concern.
"I don't want to have to take all the other kids into the bathroom every time," said Angela Miller of Syracuse.
Other changes that concern child care providers include requiring a minimum of 35 square feet for each child and a state-sponsored Web site that includes the caregivers' addresses and phone numbers.
The Web site at one time even included links to MapQuest, with directions to the caregivers' homes, Mosco said, but that has since been taken off. Still, providers don't like the fact that anyone anywhere can get their addresses.
Monica Boyer, of Little Treasures Day Care, in Warsaw, said two local licensed home care centers already have closed because of the new regulations.
"That's 30 kids that are out on the streets," she said.
Most providers agree that the state has an interest in the welfare of children, but that interest can be taken too far.
"I understand that they want to have a better quality of child care," Wiesehan said, "but in the same respect they're tying our hands behind our backs." [[In-content Ad]]