Lawmakers renew try to stiffen day-care rules

BOISE – After three years of failing to pass tougher day care rules in the Idaho House, lawmakers who favor changes turned Monday to the Senate in their latest bid to require more fire and safety inspections as well as criminal background checks and safety training for employees working with youngsters.

Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d’Alene, and Sen. Tim Corder, R-Mountain Home, the bill’s sponsors, had their first hearing in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. The panel agreed to schedule another hearing later this month.

Currently, Idaho’s day care safety licensing applies only to day cares with seven or more kids. What critics have called insufficient oversight contributed last year to the state’s 52nd-place ranking in a survey of day cares in 50 states, the District of Columbia and the Defense Department by the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies.

Corder told lawmakers that tougher rules are needed to make sure children in smaller facilities are safe.

“What happened last year or in previous years is not the issue,” he said. “If there’s one thing that each and every one of us can agree on, it’s how precious children are.”

Some lawmakers, including conservatives from southeastern Idaho, contend bolstering such requirements is an unnecessary extension of government control in an arena where parents should be allowed to make their own decisions.

The issue has a long history. Existing laws emerged out of contentious battles in the early 1980s that some still refer to as “the day care wars.”

So when Corder brandished a state Department of Health and Welfare list of problems that had been reported at day care centers in northern Idaho, including child battery, inappropriate touching, drug and alcohol incidents, unsanitary conditions and lack of supervision, Sen. Denton Darrington, R-Declo, expressed skepticism that there is a higher percentage of criminal cases at smaller, unlicensed facilities than at larger, currently licensed centers.

“I want … some evidence that we have a higher percentage of abuse cases” in unlicensed centers, Darrington demanded.

Corder said he’d try to get the information.

Currently, those day cares with seven or more children must get a criminal history check for employees, plus annual fire and health inspections, according to Health and Welfare. Smaller facilities aren’t regulated.

Cities including Boise, Chubbuck, Coeur d’Alene, Jerome, Lewiston, Moscow, and Pocatello have passed their own day care laws, but Sayler said that just means unscrupulous operators can move outside city limits to avoid scrutiny.

Among the changes should this year’s bill pass, Health and Welfare would have to obtain criminal background checks for employees of day care facilities with four or more children not related to the provider.

Those people seeking a license would have to be at least 18 years old.

In addition, all day care facilities with four or more youngsters would have to comply with new, more stringent staff-to-child ratios.

The bill would also double mandatory training, including instructional videos, to eight hours annually.

Health and Welfare would pay for additional costs associated with monitoring an expanded program by boosting fees. The licensing fee could rise to as much as $150, from $100, with the annual renewal rising to as much as $90, from $60.

Some expressed concern the money wouldn’t be enough to pay for a more rigorous program.

“I just want to be sure, if we’re going to pass a law to ensure a certain standard, that we have the resources necessary … to ensure that the standard is met,” said Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls.

Corder said the new licensing fees were suggested by Health and Welfare and would likely be sufficient.