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Opinion: Editorial

We can and must improve child care

Friday, March 2, 2007 3:43 PM EST

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As any working parent knows, finding dependable and safe child care can be a daunting task.

Locally, we are lucky to have several child care centers and lots of home caregivers available to choose from. Still, as a whole the commonwealth did miserably on a recent study ranking child care center standards and oversight across the nation. Conducted by the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, Kentucky landed very near the bottom of the list, according to the study.

Of the 52 areas ranked (including the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense,) Kentucky was named 49th.

Standards measured for the study -- 15 all told -- included staff-to-child ratios, requirements for directors to hold at least a bachelor's degree, teacher training, parental involvement, at least four inspections annually and requirements for criminal background checks including checks of child abuse and neglect registries, state and federal fingerprint checks and sex offender registry checks.

The report, entitled "We Can Do Better," points out that standards are worthless without oversight. And therein lies the problem. It's not that standards are not in place, it's simply there are few efforts to enforce them. Requiring more inspections or background checks accomplishes nothing if no one is charged with making sure the requirements are met.

Officials associated with the study pointed out that fixes are easy -- simply do the basics. Lower child to staff ratios. Ease caseloads of inspectors so that inspections are completed in a timely manner. Increase hiring standards. While none of the fixes come without costs, none are so expensive as to make them impossible to accomplish.

We hope state legislators take a good look at this report, available on-line at www.naccrra.org, and come up with a plan to raise Kentucky's ranking before the next study is released.

We can do better? We must.

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