Day-care rules changes delayed
Increased fees for background checks criticized by industry

Pamela Berry The Clarion Ledger

The State Board of Health on Wednesday postponed revising the rules governing child-care facilities after day-care owners from across the state balked at some of the changes.

In addition to increasing the fees charged for conducting background checks on workers from $35 to $50, state officials also had proposed boosting the number of children allowed in groups at a facility.

Jane Boykin, executive director of the child advocacy group Mississippi Forum on Children and Families, said some of the recommendations would set child-care safety in Mississippi back decades.

"The solution to a very real problem is not to produce centers that look like Charles Dickens stories," Boykin said of allowing up to 25 children to be grouped.

Currently, the maximum number of children allowed in groups is determined by their age. For infants and toddlers, up to 10 children can be grouped. Only youths ages 10-12 are allowed to be in groups of up to 25.

"If you do this, we will harm children and be written up on every child-care publication for warehousing our children," Boykin told board members. "This should never have been presented for consideration."

Several day-care owners also complained they were blindsided by the child-care committee's recommendations. While licensure bureau officials said they mailed a copy of the proposals to all the licensed day cares in the state, many of the owners attending Wednesday's meeting said they'd never received one.

Cantrell Keyes, executive director of the Agape Christian Center in Clinton, said she was concerned about the proposed fee increases.

"The increase in fees is going to cause us to add more to the tuition in order for us to afford this," Keyes said. "Child care has a high turnover and when I hire a person, I'd have to pay $50 for that person who may only be there for about two months. Then I'd have to turn around and pay another $50 to have a background check on another person. Please consider not raising that cost and take into consideration the burden that is put on us."

David Buchanan, director of the Office of Licensure, said the proposed increase reflects the cost of implementing the unfunded mandate the Legislature enacted two years ago requiring child-care facilities to conduct fingerprinting and child abuse registry checks of all paid and unpaid workers.

The penalty for facilities not complying with the law ranges from fines to license suspension.

Buchanan said conducting the checks has required a full-time employee and several contracted temporary staffers to process the more than 29,000 records that were submitted the past year.

On Wednesday, several day-care owners said the time it takes to complete a background check was frustrating and prevented them from maintaining a full staff.

Some said they've waited more than a year for background check results, while others complained of being forced to repeatedly submit fingerprint cards for the same person because of smudges.

"I've had two (background checks) that were sent off almost a year ago," said Margie Nobles of Hattiesburg who works with Pinebelt Childcare Directors Network. "It's just impossible for us to operate this way."

Kaye Bender, deputy state health officer, said the licensure division recently acquired new computers that should shorten the turnaround for conducting background checks from weeks to hours.

"The way the process works right now, the fingerprints are sent to either the FBI or other entities to be checked," Bender said. "The wait right now takes several weeks. This new equipment allows us to submit this electronically and brings us into the 21st century."

David Brown, owner of Genius Patch Daycare in Gulfport, said he doesn't believe the new equipment will solve the problem.

"This can impact every daycare in the state of Mississippi and could cause us to shut down," Brown said. "We don't have any faith in this because of what has gone on before."

Bender said the agency is open to input from child-care providers on the revisions.

"We will be holding committee meetings that will be open to the public and, as soon as those dates are set, they will be publicized," Bender said. "We welcome their comments."