Child Care and development in 2020

Child Care and development in 2020

     

    Child care is expensive, and even when a family can afford it, costs, schedules or availability can get in the way of a child receiving a quality early education.

Child care

     Although prevalent throughout the region, the issue of access to child care is not new. However, at this year’s Early Learning Summit for Economic Development, hosted at Purdue Fort Wayne on Thursday, the onus was placed on those who make decisions for their companies to prioritize child care.

Mainly, the conference made sure people in attendance understood just how important investing in child care is and how doing so benefits their bottom line four times over.

Not only that, but as far as retaining good workers, laying the path for efficient future employees and contributing to the overall health of the state, President and CEO of the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership John Sampson said businesses need to see themselves as part of the solution.

“I think you’re beginning to see that this is not just an education issue. This is an issue of economic development, and I think that is what is so important that we’re here today. I think in the big picture, it goes beyond that,” Sampson said.

Uniform lead-safety rules for child care centers    

     Cleveland, Ohio – In the push this year to pass historic legislation that set a lead-safe standard for Cleveland rental homes, the question of how to create similar protections in child care centers was sidelined – temporarily.

Lead safety advocates had pressed for local child care center protections that would require inspections and certification similar to rentals, and the provision was part of a citizen ballot initiative proposal.

Childcare Safty

The Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition and city council members, however, said the issue involved layers of local, county and state licensing and regulation and was too complicated to unfurl quickly.

The state, in partnership with county agencies, licensed and inspected 3,500 home day cares and 4,000 standalone child care facilities across Ohio from October 2018 through the end of September, according to the Job and Family Services yearly report. About 285,000 children spent time in those homes and centers and more than 40 percent received state subsidies each month.

The question that remains, he said, is: What gets us there?

To figure that out, the coalition is researching best practices from other states and will hire a consultant with experience in navigating state-level policy.

Billie Osborne-Fears, coalition member and executive director of Starting Point, a non-profit that connects families with quality child care, said the coalition committee, which she co-chairs, is working to find ways to reduce risks for kids that don’t create hardships for providers.

“When the rules were written, we didn’t know what we know today,” she said.

For those that must be licensed, the inspection falls under state child care licensing rules, which are less stringent than those used in other departments, like the state health department.

Protections from hazard

Licensing for what the state calls “family child care centers” that operate in a provider’s home require that children be protected from lead hazards indoors and in outdoor play areas.

Inspections of those centers are carried out by county job and family service departments.

In Cuyahoga County, 465 “Type B” homes are currently licensed that can provide care for up to six children and 23 homes are licensed as “Type A” providers, which are able to serve up to 12 children, according to county officials.

Childcare and Protection

These licensing specialists operate in a kind of “gray area” where they ask questions about potential lead hazards but are not trained or certified to make determinations about the presence of lead, a toxin often found in older paint, said Robyn Gibson, who oversees inspections for the county.

Preschools are regulated and inspected by the state department of education, unless they are licensed by the Department of Job and Family Services. Standards don’t explicitly mention lead hazards or require an inspection by a trained lead-risk assessor. 

State-level changes

The state has decided on some interim administrative changes, Cornyn said, which will have child care licensing specialists who spot indicators of lead-risk refer providers to local or county health departments or another agency that can assist with more in-depth lead assessments.

“Visual inspections are the key service we can provide,” she said. Though Cornyn said that scraping of peeling paint should not be part of the guidance provided. Scraping lead-based paint can release dangerous levels of dust if proper safety procedures aren’t followed.

Any more substantive changes, she said, have to be balanced with increased standards that will be implemented next year as part of the state’s “Step Up to Quality” rating system. The pace of any changes also has to take into account the available workforce to carry out lead inspections.

“We don’t want to create barriers,” she said.

$1 trillion plan for affordable housing and child care

     Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg unveiled plans on Friday to invest more than $1 trillion in child care and affordable housing over the next decade as part of a package of proposals targeting the middle class.
"As president, I will measure success not just by the size of the stock market or gross domestic product, but by whether working and middle class families are succeeding," Buttigieg said in the plan. "I will use public enforcement, public investments, and public options to make the economy deliver for all Americans, not just those at the top."
The plans announced Friday call for $70 billion per year in spending on child care and education and $45 billion per year on affordable housing measures. They cost about the same as those of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who wants to spend $70 billion per year on child care and $50 billion per year on housing.
The affordable-housing plan calls for $430 billion in spending on programs to lower housing costs. Buttigieg's plan said it "will unlock access to" affordable housing for 7 million families and will enable 2 million more units of affordable housing to be built or restored.
The campaign also announced on Friday its support for expanding the earned income tax credit. The campaign said its proposal, in line with the one put forward by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, would boost incomes for 35 million American families by an average of $1,000 per year.

Child dies after choking on sandwich at day care

     MESA, Ariz. — A 19-month-old boy died after choking on a sandwich at an Arizona day care, KNXV reports.
On Oct. 23, Symhir Penn reportedly died at an in-home day care called “Tiffany’s In Home Child Care.”
“I felt like my baby was so safe,” said Star Jones, Symhir’s mother. “I said, ‘I love you’ and he said ‘I love you too. I just wish I would’ve hugged him longer.”
Jones says Tiffany, who owns the day care, called her and told her Symhir had choked on a sandwich and help was coming.
“I just kept asking her, ‘is my baby okay? Is he okay?'” Jones said.
Jones says that she heard about Tiffany through a flyer on social media. The flyer stated that Tiffany was CPR certified.

Child choking

“I didn’t know that she hadn’t had a CPR license until the paramedics and the detectives were questioning her. She told them she hadn’t had a license in years,” Jones said.
Police say the investigation is ongoing and no charges have been filed.