Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 6, 1993 TAG: 9302060223
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By WARREN FISKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
CHURCH DAY-CARE REGULATION FAILS
In a debate that pitted religious freedom against what one member termed "my children's lives," a Senate committee on Friday sided with religion, killing proposals to increase state oversight of church-run day-care centers.Republicans, led by Sen. Mark Earley of Chesapeake, voted in a bloc against a proposal that would let state inspectors enter church-run day-care centers to monitor compliance with basic health and safety standards. They claimed such visits, barred for 13 years in Virginia, would violate the constitutionally guaranteed separation of church and state.
"It terrifies me that in the commonwealth of Virginia, we're going to put children at risk to protect a turf battle by adults," said Sen. Yvonne Miller, D-Norfolk.
"It scares me even more," Earley told her, "that a state inspector can show up at my church and inspect the books and interrogate employees."
"I would rather risk my church than my children's lives," Miller said.
The seven Republicans on the 15-member Senate Committee on Rehabilitation and Social Services teamed with one Democrat - Frank Nolen of Augusta - to defeat the regulations. Critics said the state's special treatment of church day-care is one reason Virginia day-care regulation is among the weakest in the nation.
The panel approved other modest reforms to strengthen regulation of day care in private homes, public schools and centers run by municipalities.
But the defeat of the church rules, coupled with the committee's decision to exempt from regulation day-care programs run by many private schools, left child experts gloomy.
"We're saying that all children are not deserving of equal protection under the law," said Peg Spangenthal, chairwoman of the Virginia Child Day-Care Council. "I'm very disappointed."
"This is a step backwards," said Sen. Stanley Walker, D-Norfolk, the patron of the bill.
Walker said he will try to reinstate the church regulations when the full, 40-member Senate takes up the day-care bill next week. But with all 18 Senate Republicans apparently opposed to the plan - and several rural Democrats likely to join them - he acknowledged his prospects may be poor.
More than 80 percent of Virginia's 600,000 children in day care attend facilities unregulated by the state and not required to meet basic health and safety standards. One reason is that Virginia is among only 10 states that exempt church day-care centers from licensing.
Since 1979, the state has given church-run centers the option of complying with regulations or seeking a licensing exemption. About 270 churches - two-thirds of all church day-care centers in the state, have opted to be unregulated. To receive the exemption, churches must state in writing that they have a required ratio of staff to children and that all employees have had health checkups. They also must pass local fire and kitchen inspections.
Walker's bill would have preserved the religious exemption but would have allowed inspectors to enter churches once each year to verify representations made to the state. In addition, it would have required that churches conduct criminal records checks of all day-care employees, that providers wash hands after changing diapers and that churches have a staff member on hand at all times trained in first aid.
The bill also would have allowed state inspectors to investigate complaints about church-run centers.
Even with the changes, churches would have been required to adhere to only a fraction of the rules that for-profit child-care centers must obey.
But Republicans argued that any mandates on church day-care was unacceptable. "What's at stake is the overreaching of government into church activities," Earley said. "I have constitutional concerns about this. The bill is overly intrusive."
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1993