They’re not waiting

Google the words “Idaho child care standards” and up pops the top response: “Idaho child care worst in the country.”

A group of North Idaho care providers remains hopeful the latest child care licensing bill co-sponsored by Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d’Alene, will become law, thus improving Idaho’s child care image. In the meantime, they’ve taken it upon themselves to improve the quality and professionalism of family, or in-home, child care.

Iris Siegler, Kim Torgerson and Laurie Klug, all of Coeur d’Alene, Carlyn Shaffer, of Hayden, and Peggy Banks, of Spirit Lake, have become accredited by the National Association for Family Child Care. It’s the only accrediting agency in the country that focuses on in-home care. The NAFCC has accredited more than 2,100 family child care providers in the U.S. and at military facilities overseas. Seven of those accredited centers are in Idaho. Five of those are in the Panhandle.

Torgerson, who runs the Adventure Club preschool in Coeur d’Alene, said she took on accreditation in part to challenge herself.

“I have a degree in early childhood education. When you’ve been in this field for as long as I have, you’re always looking for ways to challenge yourself,” she said. “Sometimes you get stale after doing something for such a long time.”

The bigger reason for becoming accredited, she added, was a desire to help improve the quality of child care in Idaho.

“It’s a great way to set an example,” she said.

The five providers have formed the North Idaho Family Care Association to encourage and support other care providers who want to become accredited.

“We got tired of playing the game of ‘Were we or weren’t we going to get minimum standards across the state?’ ” Siegler said. “So we did it on our own.”

Idaho does not require licenses – or background checks or smoke detectors or anything else – for providers who care for 12 or fewer unrelated children, although several cities, including Coeur d’Alene, have created their own licensing ordinances. The Sayler proposal, which passed the Senate on a 30-5 vote on March 12 but has been shelved by the House Health and Welfare Committee, would require licensing and minimum safety standards for facilities that care for four or more children unrelated to the operator. Requirements would include criminal background checks, health and fire safety inspections, and minimum adult-to-child ratios.

Shaffer, who runs Carlyn’s Child Care in Hayden, was the first to be accredited, in February 2008. The process took about a year, but much of it was self-paced, she said.

“That’s one of the things I really liked about it,” she said. “They give you anywhere from two months to two years to complete the beginning part of it.”

That beginning part involves a self-study guide. Once the guide is completed, the care provider then requests an observation.

The NAFCC looks for several things during the home visit, Shaffer said. Among them: Is the home safe, both inside and out? Is the home warm and inviting? Are there enough materials to coincide with the number of children on site, and is there a variety of materials?

“So, you couldn’t have one set of blocks for 12 kids,” Shaffer said.

Generally, Siegler said, the NAFCC will judge caregivers in five categories: relationships, environment, developmental learning activities, safety and health, and professional and business practices. Master these five areas, Siegler said, and “that really makes you a professional person.”

Accreditation isn’t free, but the North Idaho Family Care Association members hope the $900 fee doesn’t frighten providers from the program. Torgerson said the local association is currently helping two providers work toward accreditation and hopes to be able to help more. Dharma Postal, of Post Falls, won a grant from NIFCA to cover her accreditation cost. Jessica Flory, also of Post Falls, received $900 from Idaho Stars, a child care training and registry organization.

“It would be great to have a lot more family in-home programs accredited across the state,” Torgerson said. “And if it started here in the Panhandle, if we could have 15 to 20 accredited, that would be great.”