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Child Care Services Complain About New State Regulations

Posted on: Monday, 24 October 2005, 21:00 CDT

By Walter Rubel, Las Cruces Sun-News, N.M.

Oct. 23--SANTA FE -- The operator of a small, church-affiliated child-care center in Alamogordo said new state regulations have forced two of her staff members to leave the profession.

Caren Blackstone, of Cornerstone Child Development, said both were part-time employees who have quit their jobs at the center rather than comply with new state-mandated training. One went to work as an education assistant in the local school district, where she makes more money and has fewer training regulations, Blackstone said.

"It's sending people out of the field," she said. "They say they want to raise the quality, but they're driving off the people." Dan Harris, director of the state Child Care Services, said new regulations have been adopted for both licensed child-care facilities, and for those registered providers who want to provide services for children getting subsidized child care.

"We instituted a number of new provisions in an effort to raise the level and quality of care," Harris said.

He said the state is listening to the concerns of child-care providers, and is planning revisions to the current regulations. He said when those revisions are announced in the coming months, they will be followed by a series of town hall meetings around the state, so that parents and providers would have input into the process.

"The state government needs to be more supportive of day-care facilities and of the projects people there are undertaking," said Kyle Shanton, a New Mexico State University faculty member and the father of a 3 1/2 year-old daughter who is in day care. "There are so many projects and programs at day cares that need funding."

A final public hearing and the final decision on any revisions would be made by Children Youth and Families Secretary Mary-Dale Bolson, Harris said.

Harris said the state has different levels of regulation depending on the size and type of the operation. Those caring for four or fewer children (other than those children living in the home) in a private home are not required to register at all, unless they want to take children with subsidized child care. The requirements for those are pretty basic -- things like a smoke alarm, fire extinguisher and healthy room temperature, Harris said.

But, he said, the state's 670 licensed child-care centers have, "a pretty extensive, pretty comprehensive set of licensing requirements to ensure the health and safety of the kids." He said it included an extensive background check and criminal records check.

Nadine Handy of Little Playmates preschool and child care centers in Las Cruces said the new regulations have not been overly burdensome on her center because they already had tougher requirements in place. She said her center, which has five locations in Las Cruces, has more resources than smaller providers who are struggling to get by.

Handy said she was glad to see the state take a stronger role.

"I am pleased with any attempt the state makes to help our children," she said.

One of the new requirements is that every staff members complete 24 hours of training each year, as well as a one-time course that is the equivalent of three college credit hours -- or, about 45 hours of course work. Davis said the training is free to child-care workers at centers throughout the state.

Blackstone said that, while the training is free, the time is not. She said the Department of Labor recommends that employers pay their employees for time spent in training. That may not be a big problem for large centers with full-time employees, but is a problem for small centers like hers that rely heavily on part-time employees, she said.

She said her center has had to raise tuition costs to cover the additional expense.

Blackstone said the state is not giving providers credit for their experience. She said she has been in the profession for 13 years, and that a teaching assistant at the center has a master's degree in early childhood education -- yet both will be required to take the same training as given to an entry-level part-timer.

And, she said that church leaders who oversee her program are concerned with a new level of regulation required of those centers that accept children on child care subsidies. She said the result could be that the center has to turn away low-income children who it would have been able to accept in the past "The church doesn't want the school to take state money, because then the state can tell you what to do," Blackstone said.

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Copyright (c) 2005, Las Cruces Sun-News, N.M.

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Source: Las Cruces Sun-News

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