Day-care licensing legislation has won passage in the House on a 61-5 vote, after Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d’Alene, spent five years relentlessly, but until now unsuccessfully, proposing it. “This is good legislation - it meets the needs of parents for safe child care,” Sayler told the House. “We can’t make it a perfect world for our children, but we can make it a safer world.” The bill requires licensing for day cares that care for seven or more unrelated children, and criminal background checks for those caring for four or more unrelated children. Before the House amended the bill, it required licensing for those caring for four or more unrelated kids. Sayler said inspections and standards for licensed child care centers will help avoid horrendous child abuses cases that have been reported around the state involving day cares, several of which he recounted. The state Department of Health & Welfare will enforce the licensing law. “Their intent is not to put people out of business, their intent is to improve the care of children,” Sayler told the House.

Full text available at The Spokesman-Review.

In March, Melinda McCall of Novato represented area parents at the
National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral
Agencies’ (NACCRRA) national policy symposium in Washington, D.C.
She learned about national child care issues and met with members of
Congress on Capitol Hill to advocate for more affordable, high-quality
child care for Novato parents.

McCall, the mother of children who are now 8, 10 and 14, faced
difficulties finding affordable, quality child care when her children were
young. As a teen mother, finding employment that enabled her to
provide for herself and her children was difficult.

Full text available at the Novato Advance.

Twinsburg — Since 1998, when his 5-month old daughter died from injuries she received at an unregulated family child care home, Twinsburg resident Lawrence Hall has worked to improve conditions and create accountability at child care facilities in Ohio.

Last month, he traveled to Washington, D.C., as part of the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, to urge lawmakers to continue providing funding for Ohio child care facilities.

“The Child Care Development Block Grant is funding that states already receive,” said Hall, who serves on the Board of Directors for the Ohio Child Care Resource and Referral Association. “Our goal was to urge representatives and senators to sponsor a bill re-authorizing this funding, but we also want to see language of the bill changed to require more inspections of professional child care facilities.”

Full text available at the Twinsburg Bulletin.

This primetime special, presented by Sesame Workshop and featuring Queen Latifah and John Mayer, tells the stories of service members returning home with injuries — both visible and invisible — and explores the heroic struggles their families face on the path to finding a “new normal.”

Tune in April 1 at 8pm on PBS.