Governor wants to help parents find quality child care

Two decades ago, when I was frantically searching for good child care myself, I dreamed of a different world.

If women were in charge, I fumed, things would be different.

Darned if it wasn’t true.

Last week Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire announced her plan to form a new cabinet-level agency on early learning and devise a five-level rating system for child-care providers. At long last, young parents will have the chance to be informed consumers about the most important decision they’ll make while their kids are small.

It strikes me as no coincidence that this initiative comes at a time when the top office holders in our state are women.

When our younger daughter was a toddler, I tracked down referrals in Spokane. I was amazed that a local referral office could give me a list of caregivers, but absolutely no clue about whether they were any good.

I found a state child-care license seemed to make little difference. I set foot into grim homes run by hollow-eyed women with state licenses, and warm, happy households headed by thoroughly qualified unlicensed caregivers.

At one licensed home, I’ll never forget walking up the stairs with the owner as babies crawled around me and over each other like untended puppies. Each corner we turned in that house, more toddlers seemed to tumble out. It reminded me of the classic nursery tale drawings of the old woman in the shoe. Half the kids must have been tucked in another room the day the license was handed out.

I toured places I wouldn’t leave a cat, let alone a baby. And I found a baby sitter or two I took a chance on that I later wished I hadn’t.

Imagine if I’d found something as simple as a consumer guidebook to child-care. If you want to stay overnight on the West Side, you can flip through a AAA tour book and choose anything from the five-diamond Four Seasons Olympic Hotel in downtown Seattle to a one-star Motel 6 in Kirkland.

Similar ratings for child-care facilities might not tip you off to spa-like wading pools, goose-down crib comforters or organic milk and gourmet animal crackers. But they should help you discern what level of quality the care might be.

The state plan is this: A level-one family home or center would meet basic licensing requirements. A level five would pass the tough standards of a national accreditation group. The steps in between would be gradual improvements along that professional path.

Accreditation groups would also evaluate the most important quality of all – the caregiver’s emotional accessibility. It’s in a rich one-on-one relationship that children grow up feeling confident and secure.

Tamra Dschaak, a Spokane family day-care provider, has joined a pilot program in Spokane that has allowed her to take early childhood development classes at Spokane Falls Community College. She’s learned to help take kids to the next level – if they’ve mastered counting to five, she pushes ahead to 10; if they’ve learned to put on their coats, she teaches her kids to zip them up.

In 2004, Spokane parents paid an average of $7,280 annually for infant child care. It wasn’t easy to find, no matter where families fell on the economic scale.

For parents in her West Central neighborhood, Dschaak says, “They have to settle for less than they’re comfortable with in some instances.”

Across town on the South Hill, Dr. Traci Satterfield has been searching for a nanny for her twin 1-year-old boys for the last two months. She’s an obstetrician needing early-morning care.

She posted a notice on craigslist, but only had two responses. “I was shocked how difficult it was to find a nanny,” she says.

It sounds like much has remained the same in the years since I was interviewing caregivers. But now the cast of characters at the top of state government has changed – and finally this shopping experience may change, too.

“Frankly, we have a governor who is now a mother, who has an absolute passion about early learning, who is convinced that improving early learning outcomes is one of the best investments we can make,” says Karen Tvedt, executive director of the state Early Learning Council.

“You’ll have to draw your own conclusions.”

Not to worry. I already have.