We need your help. A new bill (HB 159 http://le.utah.gov/~2014/bills/static/HB0159.html)has been introduced in the Utah State Senate that will establish a Child Care Center Licensing Committee that will be responsible for regulating and making rules governing child care licensing. The Governing Board of the Utah Association for the Education of Young Children opposes this legislation. Below is our rationale for opposing the bill and a call to action for all early childhood professionals.

We believe that protecting the health and safety of young children in child care is the shared responsibility of families, early childhood professionals, and government. This bill would create a narrowly focused committee contrary to current best practices recommended in Caring for Our Children (AAP and APHA, 2011, http://cfoc.nrckids.org/)

Standard 10.3.1.3 States (http://cfoc.nrckids.org/StandardView/10.3.1.3)

“State licensing rules should be developed with active community participation by all interested parties including parents/guardians, service providers, advocates, professionals in medical and child development fields, funding and training sources.”

3 reasons to VOTE NO on HB 159:

1. HB 159 was NOT developed in collaboration with the early childhood community. How the bill will strengthen our ability to protect the health and safety of young children is unclear. In fact the Child Care Licensing Advisory Committee, which this bill proposes to split, was not consulted on development of the bill.

2. HB 159 establishes a smaller regulatory committee than similar Health Department rule making committees (e.g. Emergency Medical Services and Health Facility Licensing) that includes 12-15 members. Diversity is necessary to adequately represent stakeholders. The licensed program owner/directors on the committee should be representative of the diverse sectors of licensed child care programs and geographic areas of the state.

3. HB 159 gives the committee for child care centers providers rule making authority while leaving family child care providers (residential committee) as an advisory committee. This may create an unfair market advantage for child care centers of family care providers. Utah is unique from other states in that there we have more family care providers than center care providers, suggesting that some families value home environments for their children and creating an unfair market advantage for center child care will limit parental choice.