discoverchildcare.com

Yes, we got to do a parent survey at the day care. Never had to do one of these before. There was always a suggestion box, but who really gives suggestions? I’m not sure that box wasn’t the most lonely item in the building. Now that we’re part of Bright Horizons, though, we got to do a parent survey.

I’ve never had the chance to do one, so I was rather looking forward to it. Then when I discovered that all this paper they handed to me included a link to complete the survey online, I was thrilled! Any move which reduces my having to keep track of another piece of paper is a win in my book.

I tackled the survey this weekend, at home, online. With the click of my mouse, I answered the multiple choice questions with ease and speed. What were the questions, you might wonder? It was the usual stuff. My kid is fed healthy meals, the teachers treat my kid with respect, my kid learns, my kid likes it there, the usual. Then the survey turned to the parents and their work. Did your center influence your decision about returning to work, your schedule, your ability to work, etc? Have you ever had to miss work or rearrange your work schedule due to issues with your child care provider? That kind of thing.

Interesting. I know that Bright Horizons touts their ability to help families balance work and family, but I was a little taken aback when they started to ask how my child care arrangement may have effected my work arrangement.  I guess I never assumed that one had to have anything to do with the other.  I mean, when does a child care provider have to do anything to help a parent deal with being a working parent?  When does an employer have to make concessions or allowances for employees with children?  Technically, neither has to.  Ideally, both would.  Hm.

Many working mothers envision the perfect working environment where they can dress comfortably, yet professionally, bring their infant to the office, nurse/feed when they need to in private, and meet the demands of their job at the same time, even if it takes a little longer to get some things done.  Many would love to have a Pack n Play in their office or next to their cube where they could allow their baby to rest, play, and watch Mommy at work.  This, however, is not the reality for most moms.  Or dads, for that matter.

I always thought my own work/family balance was my responsibility to manage.  Mine.  Not my husband’s, not my employer’s, mine.  If I am going to have children and continue to work, I need to figure out how to make that work.  On the other hand there, I’m not having children alone, so it should equally be mine and my husband’s job to manage our combined work/family balance so that neither of us is left with more on our plate than the other.  Of course, this balance is something not easily managed, and there is never, or rarely, true equality.

So the questions about the employer and such in this survey got me to thinking.  Of course, I’m sure this is the whole point to the questions being included in the survey.  As I said, I was taken aback at first by these questions being asked of me when the survey was supposed to be about my satisfaction with the child care facility and the staff.  After further thought on the subject, I started to soften up and realized that it’s more than likely a good thing that a child care provider takes into consideration the challenges faced by working parents, their customers.  How can a provider give their customers what they really need if they don’t have a true understanding of those needs?  Now, is this survey going to be the crystal ball, giving them all the answers so they can be the perfect provider?  No.  Is it a start?  Yes.

Perhaps I’m overthinking the whole situation.  Is it really that unheard of that a child care provider would want to assist parents with their duties as both parents and employees?  Is it that strange that anyone would want to help parents juggle the demands of finding care for their children so they can continue and forward their careers?  Of course not!  It’s a brilliant idea!

Still, I am hesitant.  I work for a large corporation, but the idea of a corporation wanting to be involved in family issues doesn’t rest well with me on the surface.  I don’t work for a company that offers programs or resources to parents or families relating to work/family situations, or the work/family balancing act that working parents perform.  I guess that’s why this is so foreign to me.  As a working parent, it would be nice if someone was concerned about how I handle it when one of my kids is sick, or if my day care is closed for some reason.  Nobody really pays attention to that kind of thing.  How cool would it be for someone to offer parents resources and tools for managing their home life and their work life, and finding a good balance that is healthy and allows their entire family to thrive? 

For me, this kind of thing comes a little late for the party.  Sort of.  We’re already thinking about how much longer our kids will need day care.  We’ve still got some time, but, it’s that time to start realizing that our oldest will be in kindergarten this fall, and eventually both kids will be in the public school.  Like in two short years.  Holy moly, that’s gonna go fast!  Either way, I think the whole idea of offering “family solutions” is vital for new parents, or those who find themselves in a situation of needing child care for the first time.  I certainly would have entertained any ideas given to me which would have made entering the work force as a mom easier for me when I had my first baby. 

I do plan to open my eyes and ears and learn more about what exactly the “family solutions” part of BH really is.  I have been under considerable stress these past few months and it wouldn’t be entirely out of the realm of reality that I could use some outside advice or information which would make life as a working parent easier. 

Time to take off my “cynical” hat, and put on my “open to suggestions” hat.  In the long run, I was given an opportunity to rate the care my kids and I get from this center, and I gave it.  There was a field for comments at the end, and I filled it in.  I did my part for the survey.  Now I look forward to seeing what impact, if any, my participation in the survey may have at the center.  In turn, I will look forward to learning about ways my center can make being a working parent less stressful, or at least somewhat more managable.

The journey continues.

Jenny Other balance, Bright Horizons, career, child care, family, job, life, parents, suggestions, work, working

My husband drops off and picks up the kids on Mondays now, so today when I dropped off the kids I was pleasantly surprised to learn that our center is celebrating Parent Appreciation Week!  As we walked in this morning our Director was in her office near the door and announced that she had coffee and donuts for all her parents.  How cool is that?!  In addition to being a very nice gesture, I was quite happy to have a coffee for the road since I hadn’t brewed a fresh pot at home.  I generally have a cup of coffee while getting ready, then bring one in the car to finish at the office. 

After getting the kids settled in their rooms and giving Luke “one more kiss” a few times, I headed to the front of the building and found a great spread of Dunkin Donuts and coffee.  Beneath the counter hung a sign that said, “Parent Appreciation Week”.  Wow, I had no idea!  Even better that it was DD, because that’s my brew of choice. 

I’ve tried to focus on what part I play in the world of the center my children attend and what I can do to make it a better place for everyone.  I never expected to be “appreciated” in return by the people to care for my children.  From a business perspective, this is a brilliant move.  Maybe not the donuts, per se, but to announce their appreciation for us, the parents, the customers, is a well received message in my book.  Show us that you are thankful we have chosen this center out of all the choices we have around here.  For those of us who have stayed with the center over the past year, for whatever reasons, I think it’s a nice outreach to show parents that our business is not something to take for granted.  I’m not sure what other tokens will be offered for their appreciation of us parents, but, I will not sneeze at the fact that I got a chocolate glazed donut and hot coffee this morning.

Given the fact that it’s the first full week of the new year and tuition rates increase, I think they also timed the week well.   

All that aside, I think it is important for child care workers to show their appreciation for the parents of the children they care for, as much as it is for parents to do the same for said staff.  The special way a child can brighten your day, make you smile, and even touch your heart is not something to be taken lightly.  By choosing the people we choose to care for our children, we are offering them a piece of ourselves.  It’s important for the care giver to respect and appreciate the fact that this is not an easy choice for parents to leave their children with someone they don’t know well, if at all.  I think an appreciation week is a nice thought and a nice way to show that the center appreciates our business, and the teachers appreciate that we’ve set our trust in them and allowed them to care for and bond with our tiny treasures.  As long as we don’t get something covered in glitter, I’m cool with it. 

Suffice it to say, I got a free donut and coffee this morning, and that excited me.  A nice way to start a cold and cloudy Tuesday!

Happy Parent Appreciation Week!

Jenny Other appreciation, bond, caring, child care, coffee, donuts, Parent Appreciation Week, thanks

Jenny Other chicago, child care, environmental, garden, green, Little Green Treehouse, toxic-free

By Jennifer 8. Lee

Jenny Other child care, health care, health insurance, union

The results of the 2007 Child Care Licensing Study are now available.  NARA, the National Association of Regulatory Administration, in partnership with NCCIC, the National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center, surveyed child care licensing agencies in the US in 2007, requesting data on current licensing practices, regulations, policies, and statistics within the child care industry.  The report includes information from all 50 States, including the District of Columbia.  You can find the report at the NARA web site, http://www.naralicensing.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=160.  The information is too large to include in full text here, but, this link will take you directly to the final report, with links to each section, including the individual state data.

Jenny Other 2007, child care, NARA, NCCIC, policies, regulations, survey

by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst,
National Women’s Law Center

Fair Pay Day is not just about fair pay for women in the same jobs as men—it’s also about fair pay for women in predominately female-held jobs, such as child care.  Child care providers, despite the valuable role they play in nurturing and teaching young children and enabling parents to work and support their families, are paid an average of only $19,670 a year.  And during these challenging economic times, many child care providers are struggling to stay in business, and many child care staff are at risk of having their already-low pay cut.

Still, there are currently several promising strategies and opportunities for helping child care providers improve their compensation and education.  In 13 states that have authorized home-based child care providers to organize and negotiate with the state, child care unions are working to secure improvements in pay and working conditions for the family child care and family, friend, and neighbor care providers they represent.  Twenty-one states have adopted the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Project, which provides scholarships and raises or bonuses to child care providers who complete a specified amount of education and commit to continue working in their child care programs for a set period of time.  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides funding for several programs and initiatives that can be used to support professional development opportunities for child care providers and other early childhood educators.

On this Fair Pay Day, we need to consider how to build on these efforts to support the child care providers who are providing such essential support to children and families.

Jenny Other child care, Fair Pay Day, T.E.A.C.H., Unions

Unequal Opportunities for Preschoolers: Differing Standards for Licensed Child Care Centers and State-Funded Pre-K Programs
http://www.naccrra.org/news/press_releases/full.php?id=56
February 20, 2009

Arlington, VA – The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) released a report today comparing standards that affect 3 – and 4-year-old preschoolers in licensed child care centers to standards for state-fund prekindergarten programs. In the report, Unequal Opportunities for Preschoolers, NACCRRA used the quality standards checklist developed by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) to rate state-funded prekindergarten initiatives. Head Start program standards and Department of Defense (DoD) regulations for military child care were also included in each of the 10 benchmarks.

NACCRRA found that preschoolers in licensed child care centers receive unequal early learning experiences based on varying child care standards. This is a direct result of states setting the bar at different levels in terms of funding, regulation and monitoring of child care programs. Although parents assume that children in licensed child care centers receive similar learning opportunities as those in state-funded prekindergarten programs, our findings revealed a different reality. Children in state-funded prekindergarten programs were more likely to be in classrooms that met higher standards in class size, staff-child ratios, and staff training and education. The state where a child lives, coupled with the family’s income level, also determined the child’s chances of benefiting from state or federally-funded programs.

“The majority of young children with working mothers in America today are in child care centers. Their parents think that all center-based settings offer comparable learning environments,” said Linda K. Smith, Executive Director of NACCRRA. “It is really short-sighted on behalf of the states to set lower thresholds for child care centers and this stark gap would be shocking if parents knew.”

Our research dictates that child care standards should be stronger, as evidenced by some of our key findings regarding licensed child care centers: no states require licensed child care programs to incorporate the use of the early learning guidelines into their program practices (41 state-funded prekindergarten initiatives met this benchmark); no states have a child care licensing regulation requiring lead classroom teachers to have a bachelor’s degree (28 state-funded prekindergarten programs in 23 states require lead teachers to have a bachelor’s degree); and no states require assistant teachers to have a Child Development Associate (CDA) credential (11 programs in 11 states require prekindergarten assistant teachers to have a CDA or equivalent credential).

While child care licensing regulations in most states fail to provide the impetus for the high-quality child care that state-funded prekindergarten programs mandate, the setting where the majority of preschoolers attend cannot be ignored. Slightly more than 1 million attend state-funded prekindergarten programs in comparison to more than 4.7 million 3- and 4-year old children in licensed child care centers each week.

“The way it is now, state standards focus only on the small fraction of young children who are able to participate in part-day, part-year pre-k programs,” said Smith. “If our nation’s goal is really to enable all children to start school on a more even par, then working parents should not tolerate this gap leaving their children behind.”

To close the gap in child care standards, NACCRRA recommends that states improve licensing requirements, continue to work toward an integrated system of care and education, and tie Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) funding to greater accountability for quality and monitoring efforts. NACCRRA proposes that strengthening the child care licensing standards and oversight in all 50 states is one of the most effective ways to accomplish these goals.

For a full copy of the report, visit www.naccrra.org. For detailed information about data and regulations in individual states, please visit the following websites:

* State Fact Sheets has the most recent child care data by state.
* We Can Do Better state sheets lists state child care center standards and oversight.
* Leaving Children to Chance state sheets list state standards and oversight for family child homes.

*Additional information will be included in an upcoming NACCRRA report, We Can Do Better – 2009 Update: NACCRRA’s Ranking of State child Care Center Standards and Oversight.

Jenny Other child care, Head Start, NACCRRA, NIEER, pre-k, regulations, standards

http://www.newamerica.net/blog/early-ed-watch/2009/failing-grades-states-their-standards-child-care-centers-10598
Failing Grades: States’ Standards for Child Care Centers
Lisa Guernsey -
March 12, 2009 – 11:44am

Who’s watching who’s watching the children? The federal government leaves this task to the states. But states are failing to ensure that childcare centers are safe, according to a report released today by the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies.

Parents assume that if a child care center has obtained a state license, it must meet some basic standards of child safety and personnel training. But in many places, the license means very little, said Linda K. Smith, NACCRRA’s executive director.

“A license on a wall does not mean that a center has ever been inspected,” Smith said. “This is inexcusable.”

NACCRRA examined state regulations and oversight in 50 states plus the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense, which runs its own network of child-care centers. Each state was judged using a scorecard created by the association that gave states points for policies that address health, safety, and quality of childcare providers — such as how frequently the facilities are inspected, whether caregivers must go through background checks, and whether directors have any training in child development.

The average score was an F. No state earned an A or B, and only one — Washington, D.C. — earned a C. The Department of Defense got the top score, with 131 of 150 possible points or a B grade. Unlike states, the military must comply with standards under the Military Child Care Act of 1989.

Here is a breakdown of the states with the strongest and weakest standards in child care licensure, according to NACCRRA:

In 2007, the association conducted its first examination of how well states were measuring up, finding few state regulations to ensure even basic standards of care. This year, NACCRRA saw some improvement, with the average score rising to 83 from 70 (out of 150 possible points), and the District of Columbia, in particular, jumping to second in the rankings after sitting at 25 two years before.

But as the title of its report urged, we can do better. Some areas of concern prompted by the report:

Staff are hired without background checks: Only 11 states require what NACCRRA considers comprehensive background checks for personnel. (In 2007, it was just two.) Only 16 states check to see whether childcare workers are on sex-offender registries.

Inspections are infrequent. In California, for example, licensed centers are inspected once every 5 years. NACCRRA wants to see unannounced inspections every 3 months.

Results of inspections are hard to find, with only 17 states posting results on the Internet.

State licensing offices have unmanageable caseloads. The overseer-to-program ratio is more than 1-to-140 in 16 states. Put another way, in those states, just one staff member oversees 140 programs.

Child-to-staff ratios are not in line with standards set by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Only the District of Columbia requires its centers to meet NAEYC’s criteria for child-staff ratios. (These criteria vary by children’s ages and class sizes; an example is the 1:4 ratio required in infant and toddler settings.)

States can solve some of these problems without huge infusions of money. For example, it requires only a modest budget increase to check employee rolls against sex-offender registries. But changes in state and federal laws will be required to set a minimum bar of quality and to assess penalties when centers do not comply. Other factors — like child-to-staff ratios — cannot be addressed unless centers either increase their tuition (which many families are already struggling to afford) or find other sources of funding to pay for more staff members.

It is time to wake up to the problems of lax oversight and start addressing these gaping holes. The upcoming reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant, scheduled for this year, provides Congress and the new administration an opportunity to rethink existing approaches and provide new resources for childcare oversight and quality.

NACCRRA’s emphasis on staff training and education is encouraging. We applaud efforts to move the conversation away from labeling childcare centers as “babysitters” and toward “educational settings.”

“To think that childcare is not an educational setting is crazy,” Smith said, noting how much parents see what their children can learn, even in their earliest months of life. “We are urging states to make this consistent across all settings.” In fact, last month, NACCRA released a report called Unequal Opportunities for Preschoolers: Differing Standards for Licensed Child Care Centers and State-Funded Pre-K Programs. It showed weaker standards in childcare settings compared to state-run pre-K programs.

As that report and today’s rankings make clear, we have a long way to go before typical childcare centers in this country can rise from relatively unregulated “babysitting” to high-quality, safe and nurturing environments for today’s children.

Jenny Other child care, NACCRRA

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/mar/27/house-shelves-day-care-reform/

House shelves day care reform
March 27, 2009 in Idaho

BOISE – Even a young mother’s anguish over her baby’s violent shaking and severe injury by a day care provider couldn’t persuade a House committee on Thursday to endorse basic standards for all Idaho day cares.

“I believed and trusted her,” Brandi Whaley, of Twin Falls, said of her carefully picked day care provider, whom she had interviewed and who sounded great. Passing around pictures of her injured baby, she told the lawmakers, “Although the day care provider was charged with felony injury to a child … she is still able to watch children if she wants to. … I would not want another family to have to go through what we did.”

After nearly four hours of testimony, nearly all of it in favor of the bill, the House Health and Welfare Committee put off a decision indefinitely on Senate Bill 1112, legislation to require all Idaho day cares with four or more unrelated children to be licensed and meet minimum standards, including criminal background checks for workers, minimum staffing levels and health and fire-safety requirements.

“It is imposing what I feel is too much regulation from the state down,” said state Rep. Lynn Luker, R-Boise.

Said state Rep. Steven Thayn, R-Emmett: “Regulation by itself won’t solve these problems. Regulation has a place, but if we don’t increase the role of the parents in the process, we’re not going to get to the heart of it.”

The bill, which earlier passed the Senate on a 30-5 vote, isn’t dead yet, but its survival is in doubt. During Thursday’s committee hearing, backers offered to limit it to just day cares with seven or more unrelated children, but even that didn’t garner support from a majority of the committee.

“I knew it was in trouble,” said state Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d’Alene, who has proposed such legislation every year for the past five years. He had talked with members of the House majority leadership before the hearing, and was told at least one could live with the bill if it was limited to centers with seven or more kids.

“It’s still progress – it’s not what we would like, but in this climate, change is very incremental,” Sayler said.

Thirteen people testified in favor of the bill, and two, a former home day care operator and a conservative Christian activist, testified against it. Those in favor included day care operators, child advocates, parents, the mayor of Eagle, a victim-witness coordinator, a representative of the Catholic Diocese of Idaho, and a spokesman for the state’s health districts.

Whaley told the committee her day care provider lied about being certified in CPR and first aid and had a history that included embezzlement. Whaley’s 5-month-old daughter suffered two broken ribs, a fractured arm, bleeding on the brain and hundreds of hemorrhages in each eye from the shaking.

Charlotte Mallet of the American Association of University Women told the committee: “This is not an issue of whether a child should be with a parent or in a child-care environment. In Idaho, three out of five children under age 5 are in child-care settings. … This bill is for these children.”

More than 70,000 Idaho children go to day care. The state doesn’t license any day care operations with fewer than 13 unrelated children, though some cities do, including Coeur d’Alene. For the past five years, social conservatives in the Legislature have blocked Sayler’s legislation for statewide licensing, with some saying mothers should stay home with their children.

The Rev. Bryan Fischer, one of the two opponents to testify, told the committee that parents, not the state, should decide what is adequate day care. “A state inspector may visit a day care center once a year – parents are in there every single day,” he said. “Parents are the ones that are in the best position to do the inspections that we’re talking about.”

Rep. Branden Durst, D-Boise, countered, “The fact of the matter is we can’t make a provider tell us the truth about whether they got a background check done. There’s only one actor that can make them do that, and that’s the state.”

Durst called for passing the bill as-is, but his motion died on a 4-12 vote. A move to send the bill to the House’s amending order to change it to apply only to centers with seven or more children died on a 7-9 vote, and then the committee voted for an indefinite delay on a voice vote.

Sayler said there’s widespread public support for the bill in Idaho. “It’s the very conservative ideology that we’ve run up against in the past,” he said.

Jenny Other child care, child care regulation, Idaho, reform, Rep. George Sayler, Rep. Steven Thayn, Senate Bill 1112

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-1685
Child Care Facilities Financing Act of 2009

If you have the time, and the patience, to surf through this, it’s worthy of your attention and effort.

Jenny Other Act of 2009, child care, financing, government