Indiana

South Bend Tribune

Child Care Site Rules to be Rewritten

Providers, parents invited to meet legislators, learn of process.

JOSEPH DITS Tribune Staff Writer

This spring state officials will begin rewriting the rules that govern licensed child care homes in Indiana.This pleases many who run those homes since they feel -- at last -- their input will help to shape the rules.In fact, a group of them invites fellow child care home providers, advocates and parents to an informal meeting Monday to learn about what this will mean.

The guests will include Republican state representatives Tim Neese, of Elkhart, and Jackie Walorski, of Lakeville.Walorski said she has advocated on behalf of the providers to "keep the state's heavy-handed regulations off of them."

Walorski doesn't plan to introduce any child care bills in next year's session. She said she'd only do so if she feels that Indiana's Family and Social Services Administration is becoming "overly heavy-handed" with the new rules.

In Indiana, home-based care must be licensed if it looks after six or more children.Early last year, a set of 56 new rules awaited the signature of the state's new governor, Mitch Daniels, but he refused after hearing complaints from the Indiana Childcare Association that the rules were unworkable. New FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob agreed and scrapped the new rules altogether.

"I don't think the providers had a voice," Melanie Brizzi said of the process that created those rules. She's a state-contracted liaison on child care issues between providers, legislators and the state. "We'll make sure we do it right this time."

On five days spread over May, June and July, she said, providers will be involved in "work groups" to discuss what's good and bad and what needs to change in the current regulations. These groups will include fire marshals, health departments, FSSA officials and others who have a stake in the rules. Based on that feedback, Brizzi said, a set of proposed rules will be drafted by the National Association for Regulatory Administration, a group that works in licensing for child care, substance abuse programs and other human services.

NARA adds objectivity to the process, said Michelle Thomas, the FSSA's child care administrator. "They've done this in other states," she said.NARA also will try to write the rules so they are easier to understand, she said -- so that you don't have to flip to different pages to know what to do in one area.

The proposed rules that were rejected last year came about because the FSSA wanted to ensure safety after 16 children died in licensed child care homes in Indiana from 1999 to 2003.

The rule writers had said that most of those deaths happened because of a lack of supervision.

Among the new rules was one that required that children remain within sight and sound of an adult caretaker at all times. Providers argued that they were bound to break the rule when they turned around for a couple of minutes or let a child go to the bathroom.

Thomas said safety remains the "bottom line" of the rules."Our goal isn't to dumb down the rules," Thomas said. "It's to use some common sense in what we regulate."After the new rules are drafted in October, the general public will have chances to offer their input at public meetings.

"We are optimistic that we will come up with attainable, healthy regulations that we can all abide by," said Indiana Childcare Association's president, Monica Boyer, of Warsaw. Depending on how it goes, Thomas said, the FSSA will look into revisions in the rules for licensed child care centers.