GOP BLOCKS SCRUTINY OF CHURCH DAY CARE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 10, 1993                   TAG: 9302100255
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BY WARREN FISKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium
GOP BLOCKS SCRUTINY OF CHURCH DAY CARE
Efforts to reform Virginia's child day-care laws were dealt a setback Tuesday as Senate Republicans blocked legislation that would allow state inspectors to enter church-run day-care centers for the first time since 1979.
Arguing that the separation of church and state would be imperiled, Republicans were unanimous in helping defeat the inspections, 20-18. The vote set up a clash with the House of Delegates, which voted Monday in favor of regulating the church-run centers.
The inspections are a major part of comprehensive legislation before the General Assembly this year to overhaul Virginia's day-care laws.
The Senate easily approved other parts of the bill, requiring stiffer regulation of day care in private homes and public schools. But the defeat of the church rules, combined with a decision to exempt from regulation many day-care centers run by private schools, left reform advocates gloomy.
"Every exemption passed by the General Assembly erodes our ability to protect children," said Mary Ellen Verdu, director of the Virginia Council on Child Day Care and Early Childhood Programs. The Senate bill, she added "does not leave children better off at all."
The Senate action seems sure to force the day-care issue into a conference committee - a group of senators and delegates who will try to forge a compromise before the legislature adjourns Feb. 27. With the Senate majority appearing firm, House supporters of church day-care regulation may have to give in or risk losing other reforms in the bill.
Leading the charge Tuesday against church inspections was Sen. Mark Earley, R-Chesapeake. He said the mandate could open the door for overzealous day-care inspectors to harass religious institutions. "I know there are good intentions today," he said. "But five, 10 or 15 years from now, maybe there will not be."
Earley described as "onerous" proposed requirements that church-run day-care centers have someone trained in first aid on hand at all times and that all employees pass a criminal records check and wash hands after changing diapers.
But the patron of the bill, Sen. Stanley Walker, D-Norfolk, argued that the regulations would not be intrusive.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB