PUBLIC VIEWPOINT

Parents Must Monitor Childcare

Just a short week after the Posh Tot Learning Academy incident, another local licensed daycare was also cited for multiple violations.

Parents are not reporting these things because they are ashamed they chose such a place to put their children and they quietly move to another center.

If parents would not only speak up for their children but for the children who will fill their child’s empty space once gone, the services of these centers would not be utilized and we as a community can put them out of business.

We complain that our choices are limited but we do not demand better quality from the services already provided to us.

For three-fourths of our paycheck, our children should be happy, healthy and well cared for, not just barely making it through the day.

The Department of Human Services can only write the centers up if they are aware of these things, then they can only shut down a center that has multiple founded complaints for the same issues or, in other words, “children are in imminent danger/risk of death.” I have been told by licensing specialists it is next to impossible to shut down a center when there is no immediate fatal risk to children and parents are still utilizing their services.

Parents can visit www.arkansas.gov/childcare and search for licensed childcare. Once there, parents should contact the licensing specialist listed for the center of interest and send them an email requesting recent monitoring visit reports or call the specialists. If it says “no violations cited” on the website, it is not necessarily true, as this information is seldom updated online. Childcare facilities are supposed to make their 521 monitoring visit forms available to the public upon request. So be sure to ask to view them the next time you tour a center. If they refuse, you must alert the licensing specialist and do not choose the shady center for your family.

The steps we take as parents to achieve quality care for our children could be the difference between life and death for them.

MARLA GOTTULA

Bentonville

Opinion, Pages 5 on 01/09/2014

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