On April 29, 2008 the Denver Post reported the death of four-year-old boy found face down in a sandbox at a Calhan child care center and then again today a three year old choked to death in licensed child care in Arvada.
As Executive Director of an organization that works with child care providers, parents, and communities to improve the quality of child care in Colorado, I have seen first hand the consequences of our current licensing standards, as well as the potential of our critically important child care industry. I was both saddened and dismayed to learn that innocent children have lost their lives in licensed child care.
Unfortunately, it often takes tragedies of this magnitude for us to focus on the real issue: Bridging the gap between child care licensing regulations and quality standards.
With two-thirds of Colorado families relying on child care in order to work full-time, it is essential that our standards for child care are raised. These standards should not only address health and safety but also the learning environment.
Our parents must be able to trust that a state licensed child care center is not only safe but a place where their children will thrive, learn, and enter kindergarten ready to succeed.
We know from more than 40 years of research that children who receive high quality child care are more likely to demonstrate greater social skills, attend college, hold jobs as adults, are less likely to be on welfare, and have a greater potential for higher earnings over their lifetime.
So, why is it that Colorado ranked 40th in their licensing standards compared to the other states according to the recent study by the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA)?
This is the question that the people of Colorado and our policy makers need to ask, and find answers for. The future of our communities and economy are at risk when we don’t demand the most for our children.
We need to pay more attention to the basics of licensing, re-evaluate our standards, increase the training of our child care workforce, and invest in quality improvement systems.
Currently, state licensing specialists conduct “monitoring visits” only on a risk-based schedule which can vary from once a month to once every three years, and on average most centers are visited once every two years while pet stores and animal shelters are visited every six months.
Child care teachers in Colorado are not required to have even a high school diploma or GED before working with our youngest and most vulnerable children. And, Colorado does not require that a program address any of the developmental domains that improve the educational readiness of the child.
Here are a few areas that need to be addressed to improve the quality of care in Colorado.
Licensing inspectors should oversee 50 or fewer child care programs so that inspections can happen quarterly.
Ensure that child care employees are required to have a full background check- a criminal history check plus a check of the child abuse and neglect registry, a state and federal fingerprint check, and a sex offender check.
Minimum qualifications for child care classroom teachers should be an Associates Degree prior to working with children.
Require programs to provide activities in all six developmental domains (physical health, approaches to learning, social and emotional, language and communication, cognitive development and motor development).
Meet national benchmarks for Staff to Child Ratios and Group Size which is the best indicator of quality and impacts health, safety, and adult-child interactions.
Parents need to be able to have confidence that their children are in safe, healthy, and educational child care programs. As a state we must go beyond the minimum if we want to see our young children reach their maximum potential.
Gladys W. Wilson is Executive Director of Qualistar Early Learning, a statewide non-profit organization that works to ensure all children reach kindergarten ready to learn and succeed.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
