Creative Centers and Homes by Auerbach Stevanne;Rivaldo James A.;Ziegler Edward;

Author:Auerbach, Stevanne;Rivaldo, James A.;Ziegler, Edward; [Auerbach Stevanne PhD]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
Published: 2016-03-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

LICENSING CHILD CARE

Edna H. Hughes

The intent of this article is to provide a brief review of the changing and developing role and function of child day care facility licensing in the day care system. Specifically, it speaks to concepts and principles, now identifiable, which enable licensing to be correctly defined, sharply focused to its regulatory purpose, and consequently better equipped to set and guarantee a baseline of quality.

It draws some distinctions between what licensing is and what it is often misunderstood to be; reviews changes in the conception of licensing beginning two decades ago; enumerates some even more recent developments in its administration; and identifies some problems still to be solved if licensing is to fulfill its present promise of becoming a fully professional, effective, and efficient state service in behalf of children.

The reader, whether student, day care provider, parent, or concerned citizen with a voice and vote for policy, needs to keep in mind that the conceptualization of licensing presented here is a mere sketch; that few state licensing administrations, even when familiar with it, have fully integrated it into practice; and that national agencies and professional schools are only beginning to familiarize themselves with it. Nevertheless, the reader should be aware that many of the changing perceptions and practices in states are due to this conceptualization.

THE DAY CARE SYSTEM AND LICENSING

Major components in the day care system for the present and immediate future can be identified as:

• A variety of day care settings—in the child’s own home and elsewhere in family homes, group homes, and centers.

• A variety of auspices—proprietary, philanthropic, and governmental.

• A mix of funding sources—parents, federal and state governments, church, industry, and community-organized voluntary giving.

• State regulation—licensing of private facilities, both profit and nonprofit, fiscal regulation in purchase of care, approval procedures for publicly-operated facilities—for baseline, mandatory standards.

• The beginning of accreditation and credentialing under public and private auspices, to recognize achievement of quality care above that mandated by state and federal statutes.

• Community understanding, interpretation, and support through the media, educational institutions, and citizen organizations.

• Licensing must be seen as only one of the several kinds of state regulation in day care, just as all state regulation itself is only one of the six major components identified above.

Does licensing then have strategic importance? The answer is yes, and it comes from three facts: (a) licensing is now operational in every state; (b) most day care facilities are private and proprietary, including family day care homes which perhaps outnumber other kinds by at least 10 to 1; and (c) more children are presently safeguarded by licensing than by all other forms of regulation together.

Does licensing also have significance? The answer again is yes, when its proper function of providing a baseline of quality, below which no private child day care will be permitted to operate, is understood. At that time and in those states, child care advocates have a solid foundation upon which to build child care of the excellence children deserve as the trustees of posterity.

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