TOUGHEN HOME DAY CARE ENFORCEMENT? NO.
Rigid Albany regulations could leave thousands in the lurch
BY SANDRA ROBINSON and ILANA BERGER
New York Daily News
September 17, 2006

Sheila Samuel has been taking care of kids on the sixth floor of her Brooklyn apartment building for 26 years. Now, all of a sudden, New York State wants to shut her down. And it has nothing to do with the quality of care she gives children while their parents are at work. It's because, under a change in state policy, Samuel lives one floor too high.
Senseless new state rules like these, supposedly instituted for the sake of safety, are threatening the survival of about 600 city day cares, where about 5,000 kids are served.

The Samuels example is only one of many. Nancy Ramirez, another city day-care provider, is on the verge of being shut down simply because her backyard is 5 feet short of the state's new limit.

Why did the state change its standards? We are still trying to find out. How can kids who've been safe for years now suddenly be considered in danger? We'd like to know that, too. Yet no one in state or city government has answered our questions - or those of parents distraught at having to leave longtime providers.

Day-care workers are already dedicated to keeping kids safe. To be licensed, they must do monthly timed evacuation drills, update their fire extinguishers every six months, have smoke detectors in every room, and maintain certification in CPR.

Ironically, rather than improving safety conditions, the new rules would force desperate parents to leave children in more dangerous situations. They would have to scramble to find ad hoc care or potentially leave their kids entirely unsupervised.

For parents, that's a problem any day - but especially in a real emergency. As one provider said, "On Sept. 11, 2001, parents got through the crisis because they knew their children were safe with me."

New York State should immediately rewrite its policy to reflect reality in New York City. The state should also provide training and financial assistance for small repairs that would keep day cares open. If it doesn't - and instead, stubbornly sticks to its guns on this policy change - providers, kids and parents will be left out in the cold.

Robinson is a family day-care provider in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Berger is Director of Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE).