Child Care Licensing Regulations

I don’t know about any of you, but in my local area there are some big discussions going on in the public forums in regard to child care licensing bureaucracies and their ever-reaching regulatory rules and interpretation of rules.  I may open a bigger can of worms than I want to, but I thought this topic was worth some thought and discussion.

• How does a child care provider best work with their licensing representative?
• How does a child care provider follow all of the rules and stay in compliance with all regulations without going crazy?
• What are different states doing in the name of child safety?  What types of new regulations or new interpretations of regulations are coming your way, in your area?

Sometimes we all feel overwhelmed with rules and regulations.  Even I feel overwhelmed just trying to write a blog article on the subject.  Between Misty and myself, we have 30+ years of experience in child care, 20+ years of experience with working with child care providers, families, children and communities in regard to families involved in some sort of social system (foster care, juvenile probation, mental health institutions, etc.).  We continuously try to develop sound, solid, practical and high quality policies and procedures that will enhance our programs and make them as safe as humanly possible for children.  Yet, we cannot seem to keep up with the never-ending bureaucratic list of “new” regulations.

We would love to hear from you!  What are you in need of in your area?  New licensing regulations that require new forms, new policies, research that you don’t have time to do?  Let us know and we’ll see what we can develop to help the whole of our child care community. 

Mindy