Child care proposal advances

Bill would remove commission’s authority to regulate centers

A bill that would strip a state commission of its authority to regulate child care centers cleared a House committee Thursday.

Rep. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, the sponsor of House Bill 1545, told the House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee that the rules approved by the Arkansas Early Childhood Commission have been costly for child care centers, families and taxpayers, who subsidize some types of child care.

Sullivan is chief executive of Ascent Children's Health Services, which operates centers that are licensed by the state under rules approved by the commission.

"We are vastly overregulated," Sullivan said. "At some point, somebody has to take a stand."

Jody Veit-Edrington, the commission's chairman, said after the meeting that the bill appears to be a response to the commission's refusal last year to change a requirement for at least 50 percent of child care center employees to be certified in first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Previously, Veit-Edrington said, state regulations required a child care center to have at least one employee on the premises to be certified.

She said the change was part of an overhaul of the child care regulations initiated by the Department of Human Services' Child Care and Early Childhood Education Division and approved by the commission.

The commission "felt very strongly that this was an important thing to be in place," Veit-Edrington said.

After Sullivan asked for the requirement to be changed, she said, the division surveyed child care centers and found that only a small percentage were out of compliance.

Such centers, she said, are given a year to reach compliance and can request additional time even after that.

"We felt comfortable in standing our ground," she said.

Sullivan also cited a requirement for child care centers to have one staff member for every five children, instead of for every six children, ages 18 months or younger.

Child care centers that were operating before the rules overhaul took effect in May 2015 have until May 2019 to meet the new staffing requirements.

Veit-Edrington said almost all such changes are initiated by the Child Care and Early Childhood Education Division, but Sullivan said the commission's authority gives it influence over how the rules are crafted.

The Legislature created the commission in 1989 and gave it the authority to approve rules a decade later. Eighteen members are appointed by the governor.

The others include the chairmen of two House committees or their designees, two Senate committee chairmen or their designees, the education commissioner or his designee, the Department of Health director or his designee and the director of the Department of Career Education or his designee.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson has not yet reviewed Sullivan's bill, Hutchinson spokesman J.R. Davis said.

A Section on 02/24/2017

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