Parents Call On Sitter Sleuth Private Investigator Runs Checks And Spies On Child-Care Providers

Besides guarding celebrities and trailing cheating spouses, private investigator Marc Buckley is developing another steady business: investigating prospective baby sitters.

For about $45 an hour, the Salt Lake City gumshoe will run background checks on a potential caregiver’s criminal, court, employment and financial backgrounds. He will also set up a hidden camera that watches the baby sitter from a clock or stuffed animal.

“It’s not because they’re suspicious, but because they care about their child,” said Buckley, who owns Statewide Investigations and Protection and publishes the Professional Investigator Newsletter. “More than not, it’s just people doing their homework.”

While relatively few parents seek out private investigators, the “market trend” Buckley describes and the recent case of British au pair Louise Woodward highlight the daunting process of trying to find reliable child care.

No one licenses nannies and au pairs, and regulation of day-care centers and child care in homes varies radically from state to state.

All 50 states license and regulate day-care centers - which are not in homes - and family day care, which usually means people caring for children other than their own in their homes. Educational requirements vary from state to state, as do mandatory child-to-staff ratios and frequency of inspections.

Maryland, which frequently rates high with child-care advocates, requires there be one adult for every three infants and for every six toddlers. Family day-care providers must have nine hours of training to begin with and add 12 more hours each year. On-site inspections are done once before a center opens and at least once every two years after that.

Louisiana, which is often ranked low, requires one adult for every six infants and one for every 12 toddlers. There are no educational or training requirements for family day-care providers, and inspectors visit home providers only if complaints are lodged. Day-care centers have unannounced inspections once a year.

Also frequently rated low is Idaho, which until this summer allowed one person to care for 12 children of any age. The law was changed to require one adult for six infants.

Even given these regulations, which are available at state human services agencies and are posted on the Internet, stringency varies depending on staff and budgets.

Another sign parents can look for is accreditation, which is done almost exclusively by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Looking at factors including interaction between staff and children, curriculum and nutrition, the group has given its stamp to 5,618 of the approximately 97,000 licensed child-care programs in the country.

While child-care advocates say getting the accreditation shows a provider is going “above and beyond” the state regulations, association officials say they ultimately approve 98 percent to 99 percent of applicants.

Parents who choose at-home help are more on their own.

The 1 million or so nannies working in the United States face no licensing or training requirements, although trade groups and schools are trying to create an exam similar to that required in Britain.

Also loosely regulated is the government’s 11-year-old au pair program, which is run by the U.S. Information Agency and operated by eight private agencies.

In September, the USIA created new regulations requiring au pairs to get safety and child development training. In addition, au pairs caring for children under 2 must now have at least 200 hours of infant care experience. Parents who are unhappy with either their au pair or their agency can complain to the government, but there is no staff to inspect or investigate, said Cheryl Irwin, a USIA spokeswoman.

“Unfortunately, we have neither the manpower nor the resources to send people out,” Irwin said. “It’s in essence a self-regulating program in that (the agencies) are to adhere to the regulations that we’ve formulated.”