Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 15, 1993 TAG: 9302150293
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
LOOKING AFTER THE CHILDREN
ONEROUS. That's the word Sen. Mark Earley, R-Chesapeake, uses to describe proposed health-and-safety requirements for church-run day-care centers.Requirements such as: that employees wash their hands after changing diapers. That the centers have someone on hand who is trained to administer first aid. That employees be subject to a background check for convictions of violent crimes or sex crimes against children.
Onerous?
At the moment, the legislation may be in trouble. The major sticking point is that the state - for the first time since 1979 - would be allowed to inspect the church-run centers once a year to make sure they are following health-and-safety rules.
The House narrowly has passed a bill, designed to strengthen Virginia's day-care laws, with the inspection provision. The Senate also has passed a day-care bill - but with the church-center language stripped from it.
Absurdly, opponents of the measure would keep state inspectors away even if there were cause to worry about unhealthy conditions or wrongdoing in a particular day-care center that happens to be located in a church. The hope must be that House-Senate conferees will restore the proposed church-center regulations.
These are not onerous. Neither are they a breach of church-state separation. (Indeed, church centers would still be exempt from state licensing, for instance.) They are sensible steps to ensure that thousands of Virginia children who are in church-affiliated programs get equal protection under the law along with children in other day-care centers.
Del. Joan Munford, D-Blacksburg, is to be commended for pushing for passage of the day-care measure. Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, and Dels. Tom Jackson, D-Hillsville, and Creigh Deeds, D-Warm Springs, also support it.
On critical votes, other legislators from this region voted the wrong way - on behalf of churches trying to escape the most minimal of standards. The lawmakers apparently forgot their responsibility to look after the welfare of Virginia's children.