Editor, Times-Union: I am a licensed home day care provider here in Warsaw. The children of Indiana are my passion. There are so many who have slipped through the cracks. My desire when I opened my business was to create a warm cozy home atmosphere where children could come and learn in a comfortable environment. I thought I was doing the professional thing by becoming licensed. Parents could still have the "family" environment for their children while they were at work, and yet still know that I was under guidelines. It has been wonderful until this year when we discovered the state's ultimate agenda. The state has come up with 32 pages of rules and regulations that are going to force family child care providers out of business (if they do stay in business, the price of day care will go up drastically). In a nutshell, they want us to run perfectly sterile hospital environments. They want us to become centers. I am not a center ... Yes, I teach the children preschool, and I do run by a schedule, but I am a home. Most of the children I have come as infants. These children know me, and I know them. How would a state-run day care know that Emily likes her peanut butter sandwich in quarters ... (it tastes better that way) or that little Ethan knows every bone and part a dinosaur has?
If these laws pass, you will see a drastic amount of providers throw in the towel. Already, in Kosciusko County alone, 10 providers have given up (by the way ... the illegal providers outnumber us three to one). Our names, addresses, phone numbers and business hours have been plastered on the Web site for any child predator to find (four attempted abductions have already happened in St. Joseph County). They have decided that all children (including my own) have to be within sight and sound at all times (yes, even when we have to go to the bathroom). Try that with 10 children! This is not humanly possible. They have told us to use our discretion, in yet provider after provider have been written up for sight and sound and put on probation. They have also told us that when a parent places their child in day care, they have given up all rights to the child in the choices made for them. There are 32 pages of laws, and whether your provider knows it or not, she will be affected by at least one. The only people that can stop FSSA are our legislators and our governor. Mr. Kernan will not read any of our letters or even take one phone call. He thinks saving money and placing our children in state institutions is the best route for Indiana's children. Please get involved. We need to save family child care.
