Radio Iowa, IA
10-12-07
ISU researchers say more regulation needed for home child care providers
By Darwin Danielson
Two Iowa State University researchers who study the state's child care providers
are urging Iowa legislators to explore greater monitoring of the home child care
facilities. The legislature passed a law to register child care providers, but I-S-U
researcher Susan Hegland says that law does not require licenses for child
care providers.
Hegland says there's a great deal of confusion among parents who assume that
the registration process is the same as a license. Hegland says while you must
have a license to cut someone's hair or care a meal from your home -- homebased child care providers aren't required to have a license. That can lead to
unsafe practices.
Hegland says she can change your baby's diaper, fix a bottle for a baby from
another family, change the diapers of another baby, and never wash your hands
inbetween without any training to tell you how dangerous that is. Hegland says
we need to change the way the state looks at home child care.
Hegland says when you're taking money from two unrelated families, these are
not informal arrangements between neighbors helping each other out -- these are
long standing businesses that advertise for clients. She says we need to start
treating these operations as businesses and giving them the respect they
deserve. Hegland says legislators are concerned about the cost of increasing the
regulation of home child care -- but she says it could be done in a way to make
better use of the money being spent now.
Hegland says there are some efficiencies in other states that could take some of
the money that's used to try and persuade providers to operate safe care and
redirect it to require child care providers to follow safe practices. She says the
money would be spent on training child care providers from the start, instead of
paying to try and check up on them. She says in some states as soon as you
take money from two unrelated families, you have to pay $25 and take an
orientation course where you find out what you have to do to be sure that
children are safe and healthy.
Hegland says instead of paying all the costs of sending consultants out to check
up on the providers, you say they can't provide care until they learn what to do.
Hegland says turnover in child care nationwide and in Iowa is between 20 and
50-percent. Hegland says they think some of the turnover is because some
people didn't know what they were getting into, thinking child care would let them
spend more time with their own children.
But she says research show caring for other kids increases your stress, and
some people find they can't spend time with their kids as they're taking care of
other children. Hegland says increased regulation would help the child care
industry in a couple of ways. Hegland says it would help some people realize it
isn't the business for them, and it would help keep some providers from being
undercut in wages by those who say they can do the job cheaper.
Hegland works with fellow researcher Kathlene Larson at the "Community
Development - Data Information and Analysis Laboratory" (CD-DIAL) at Iowa
State. They presented a summary of their research to Iowa legislators on the
Home-Based Child Care Study Committee as legislators debate future funding
for improving access to child care within the state.