THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 16, 1997 TAG: 9701160235
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH SIMPSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 71 lines
Two delegates to the General Assembly are proposing bills this session to protect day-care center standards that are being threatened by a governor-appointed council.
The two bills would freeze current educational requirements for child-care center staff - which is a high school diploma for lead teachers and some college education for directors - and maintain child-teacher ratios by making them part of the state code.
The bills, which are expected to be filed by the end of the week, are in response to actions by the Child Day Care Council, a governor-appointed agency charged with streamlining state regulations. In October, the council proposed reducing educational requirements for lead teachers and center directors, and increasing the number of children one teacher could care for in certain age groups.
The proposed bills would make it impossible for the council to change those particular standards, which are currently part of state regulation rather than law.
But Sharon Jones, chairwoman of the council, said the bills may not be necessary. Jones said the council will meet Friday, and she plans to propose changes to current recommendations, in response to an outcry from the public.
``I have been doing a lot of personal searching, and listening to what parents have to say,'' Jones said. ``And of course we are sensitive to legislators' concerns as well.''
Although Jones would not say what changes are being suggested, she said they deal with two areas - educational requirements and child-staff ratios - that have caused the most controversy during the past four months.
``We have no intention of weakening the regulations,'' she said.
The council had proposed dropping the requirement that a staff person in charge of a child-care class have a high school diploma. The council also wanted to eliminate the requirement that a center director have either a college degree or 48 semester hours of college education, and substituting three years of experience instead.
The council also proposed increasing the staff-student ratio for 4-year-old children from 12 children per staff person to 15 children. The same staff ratio was proposed for children in a ``balanced mixed-age group'' of 3- to 6-year-olds.
Del. Linda Puller, D-Mount Vernon, is proposing the bill to maintain current educational requirements, and Del. Julia Connally, D-Arlington, is proposing the bill freezing staff ratios.
Both delegates said the legislation would only be effective through July 1, 1998, which gives the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, a legislative oversight agency, time to conduct a study on the state of day care in Virginia.
``I understand the need to provide more affordable and more accessible day care,'' Connally said. ``But I think there are ways of doing that without hurting the quality of day care.''
Carole Whitener, president of the Virginia Association for Early Childhood Education, said she was glad the current standards would be protected. ``It's incomprehensible that the state has to resort to these rather drastic measures to do that,'' she said.
Jones said the council has already received a lot of comment on the proposed regulations, and the official public comment period has not even begun. The proposed regulations must be reviewed by several state committees before being published in the Virginia Register of Regulations, at which time a public comment period would begin. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
DETAILS
The Child Day Care Council will meet Friday at 10 a.m. at the new
Library of Virginia, 800 E. Broad St., Conference Room A and B, in
Richmond.
KEYWORDS: CHILD CARE DAY CARE CENTERS STANDARD PROPOSED
BILL GENERAL ASSEMBLY