Meetings To Focus On Day Care Six Sessions Will Give The Public An Opportunity To Offer Advice

A rising child care need in North Idaho has prompted a review of day-care centers by experts and state legislators.

On Tuesday, local legislators announced plans for six public meetings that will give citizens a chance to advise a committee of local government officials and child-care experts.

A daylong informational meeting Oct. 27 will include presentations by Lewiston and Boise city officials, who will explain their ordinances, which possibly could be used as models throughout North Idaho.

Regional Health and Welfare Director Michelle Britton said more funding for child care is expected this year as part of federal welfare reform. With a review under way, North Idaho could be poised to receive additional child-care money.

Sen. Gordon Crow, R-Hayden Lake, said he hopes the money can be used to improve day care without increasing regulation - by setting up a voluntary rating system, for example.

The Oct. 28-Nov. 6 public hearings were prompted by an article in Working Mother magazine ranking Idaho child care as the worst in the nation and by an Idaho Spokesman-Review report scrutinizing the state’s minimal rules governing child care, Crow said at a press conference Tuesday.

The newspaper report showed there are few requirements for opening a day-care center and almost no punishment for rules violators. A single state inspector often is unable to enforce violations at North Idaho’s 108 registered day-care centers. Background checks for new employees often are overlooked and many day-care centers that should be licensed are not.

Crow said the committee wants to know what basic standards of care citizens want, how much information should be disclosed to parents and how regulations should be administered or enforced.

“The fundamental question is going to be whose standards are appropriate,” Crow said at a press conference Tuesday.

While Crow doubts any state legislation will result from the meetings, he’s hoping city and county officials will take action. Crow plans to recommend changes after gathering input from the meetings.

Though county commissioners from all five North Idaho counties and the mayors of each major city have all been invited to participate, none have responded yet.

There have been numerous complaints against day cares in North Idaho. Some have been accused of taping a child’s mouth shut, forcing a child to stand naked before other children after wetting his pants and washing a child’s mouth out with soap containing lye.

But parents who wish to explore a day care’s background have almost no access to such complaints against a day care owner. Britton said state officials hope to make that process easier for parents.

“There are bits and pieces of that complaint process that are spread all over. We have to decide is child care a state issue or is it really a local control issue.”

Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden, said many legislators are eyeing health and welfare staff cuts because the amount of Idahoans on cash assistance has dropped dramatically. According to Britton, the number of residents on cash assistance dropped from 1,200 in February of 1996 to under 200 now.

Clark said he and Rep. Hilde Kellogg, R-Post Falls, will instead lobby to shift staff efforts into critical areas like child care. Crow noted that the number of welfare recipients will likely go up as seasonal employment tapers off, and those originally dropped from welfare rolls become more familiar with the new system.

“It’s very tempting and very romantic to say we are going to cut so many health and welfare employees, but its throwing the baby out with the bath water,” Crow said. “Those wholesale cuts might be a way to demagogue your way into office, but the outcomes might be incredibly damaging to all children in Idaho.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: MEETINGS The panel’s education and informational meeting will be held Oct. 27 at the Coeur d’Alene Inn from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. On Oct. 28, the panel will hold a 6 p.m. town hall meeting at the Coeur d’Alene Inn. Similar 6 p.m. meetings will be held on Oct. 29 at the Sandpoint Community Hall; Oct. 30 at the Kootenai River Inn in Bonners Ferry; Nov. 5 in the WWP auditorium in Kellogg; and Nov. 6 at the federal building in St. Maries.