ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, October 11, 1996               TAG: 9610110064
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: RICHMOND 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DAY CARE RULES OK DESPITE CRITICISM, CHANGES ARE BACKED

The Child Day Care Council voted 9-3 to send the new regulations to public hearings. The regulations also must clear reviews by the General Assembly and the governor before taking effect, perhaps as late as June 1998.

The regulations would lower education requirements for day care workers while increasing allowable class sizes.

``That's a step backward,'' Malcolm Cole of the Virginia Association for Early Childhood Education told the council. Cole is director of a child care center for the University of Virginia's Health Sciences Center.

Some of the more controversial changes would:

* Drop the requirement that the staff person in charge of a child care class have a high school diploma.

* Eliminate the requirement that a center director have either a college degree or 48 semester hours of college education, substituting three years of experience instead.

* Increase the student-staff ratio for 4-year-old children from 12 children per staff person to 15 children.

Susan Corbett, director of the Second Presbyterian Church Child Care Center in Richmond, said the larger class sizes are troubling.

``You just can't see that many children at one time,'' she said. ``I think some things are going to happen that you're going to regret.''

But most council members contend the changes will make state regulations more flexible and encourage more people to get into the day care business.

Vernon Holloman Jr. of Hayes, a council member and day care center owner, said experience often can be a good substitute for formal education.

``I'm not of the school of thought that if you have no college, you don't know what you're doing,'' he said.

Holloman said day care centers need to be able to hire people quickly to fill vacancies, and allowing more flexibility in education and training requirements will allow them to do that.

Cole said the new regulations could boost profits for day care center operators among the 20 council members, although he emphasized he was not questioning their motives.

Council member Bradley Marrs of Richmond disputed that notion. He said day care center owners on the council should be applauded for promoting changes that will increase competition in the business.

At least three of the council's 10 day care center operators run for-profit businesses.

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