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Catherine Read

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Child Care: Safety, Quality, Affordability with Grace Reef – Inside Scoop

(Apr 3, 2017) Catherine Read talks with Grace Reef, President of the Early Learning Policy Group, about child care policy in Virginia. This show was live broadcast 2 days before the only child care bill that survived the 2017 Virginia Legislative Session (SB 1239) was voted on by the Veto Session convened on April 5, 2017. Governor Terry McAuliffe amended the bill passed by both chambers re-inserting language that better protects the safety of children. Grace works with Child Care Aware Virginia, an organization that maintains a Virginia Education and Action Center online, which is the best place to find reliable information on the state of child care in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Grace ReefGrace Reef started her career in the U.S. Senate where she worked on policy development around issues of early childhood education and development, some specific to the child care setting. As a consultant, she works with a number of agencies in states throughout the country, sorting through data and research studies that show the impact of early childhood experience on long term health, achievement and life outcomes. She acknowledges that we often separate child care into separate issues of safety and quality, as if they are distinct from one another. Safety builds the floor to quality care and Virginia has not made sufficient progress in addressing public policy that provides oversight to those providing care – whether it’s in a child care center or in a home based setting.

One of the perplexing aspects of moving the needle forward on better quality child care in Virginia is the lack of connection between economic development agencies, elected leaders, Chambers and business owners with the need to provide quality child care for a workforce made up of working families with children. Grace talks about her work with The Committee for Economic Development (CED), a non-profit based in DC, that is the voice of business leadership working in states around the nation to advocate for better public policy to support working families with children.

Virginia has a shocking track record of child care deaths – over 60 deaths in the last ten years – that place us at the top of a list we don’t want to be on. Here in Northern Virginia, we have had a child care permitting process in Alexandria, Arlington and Fairfax County. Fairfax County’s Office for Children was established in 1975. Virginia has 95 counties and 38 independent cities and in a majority of the Commonwealth, the only “regulation” is Virginia’s state policy around what is a “licensed” child care program. A requirement of licensing for home based daycare was changed last year, making the license a requirement for the care of 5 children (instead of 6 children.)

Also in 2016, operating an unlicensed child care home/center was changed from a misdemeanor to a felony. This was in the aftermath of a tragic death in Chesterfield County, VA, where 1 year old Joseph Allen died as a result of a house fire in an unlicensed child care home with no fire extinguisher, no working smoke detectors, no evacuation plan and no list of what children were in the home that day.

Safe, affordable, quality child care is integral to the health and well being of every community in Virginia. It’s not just a concern for parents with children, it’s the foundation of healthy school systems and a workforce that needs child care in order to be able to work. Employers, small business owners and Chambers of Commerce need to connect investment in better child care to strengthening economic growth and development in every community in Virginia. The National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine has done the research on Financing Early Care and Education with a Highly Qualified Workforce.  There is no shortage of compelling data, we are jut not connecting the dots at this point. That needs to change, and it’s going to take a lot of voices to change it.

For further information on the research being done on early childhood development check out Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child, specifically Harvard’s Brain Research (Birth to Age 3)
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Regulating Child Care in Virginia – Part II

(Feb. 9, 2015) This is a follow up show to one that aired on December 15, 2014, regarding the regulation of child care homes in Virginia. Mary Cobb Braxton and Kandy Hilliard discuss some of the legislative hurdles on the day before crossover in the Virginia General Assembly. We discuss proposed bills and legislation that would impact the health and safety of children in childcare homes across Virginia. Special guest Elly Lafkin talks about the death of her daughter Camden in an unregulated childcare home by a provider whose felonies in other states did not come up on a name check. The resulting “Cami’s Law” would require fingerprint background checks of all daycare providers.

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Regulating Home Based Childcare Providers in Virginia (2014)

(Dec 15, 2014) Joining me on Inside Scoop Virginia were Mary Braxton of Prince William County and Kandy Hilliard of Stafford County. Our discussion is about the lack of regulation in daycare homes, where many of Virginia’s 394,000 children are cared for each day.

Mary Braxton is a home based daycare provider in Prince William County and also the President of The Virginia Alliance of Family Child Care Associations and President of The Eastern Prince William Area Family Child Care Associations. She has worked for decades in advocating for children and families to have access to safe quality care using the best developmental practices.

Kandy Hilliard is the Assistant Director of the Child Care Network and Outreach Specialist for Childcare Aware of Northern Virginia. Kandy is also a former member of the Stafford County Board of Supervisors and she has spent 25 years of her career in early childhood education.

Fairfax and Arlington Counties, along with Alexandria city (all in Northern Virginia) have greater regulation of licensed daycare homes than the other 93 counties and 39 independent cities in Virginia. There are greater licensing requirements for dog groomers and nail technicians in those counties than there are for people who keep 5 or fewer unrelated children in their home daycare business. Sharon Veatch, Executive Director of Child Care Aware Virginia, wrote an op-ed to that affect to the Richmond Times Dispatch on October 28, 2014.

The Virginia General Assembly needs to address this lack of basic oversight to make it consistent across the entire commonwealth. Some of those recommendations include criminal background checks for every adult in the home, an inspection by the fire marshall to insure there is a fire evacuation plan in place. In September of 2014, 3 children died in day care fires in both Lynchburg and Midlothian in unlicensed homes. The brings the total to 43 children who have died in daycare in the last 10 years.

For 2015, Child Care Aware of Virginia recommends:

  • Reducing the licensing threshold for child care homes;
  • Training for providers to promote the safety and healthy development of children, and
  • Reviewing the state licensing fee to determine whether it is set at an appropriate level to promote accountability in state oversight.

This show explores the many ways in which we can elevate the profession of daycare providers and insure greater safety for Virginia’s children.