Dear State Board of Social Services,

The proposed regulations to update the Standards for Licensed Child Day Care Centers introduces a number of issues related to the operation of small, independently owned child day care centers.  In particular, parent-run cooperative preschools will be detrimentally affected by new substantive requirements in the proposed regulations.  This fact runs counter to the Board's Estimated Economic Impact that states, “Many changes that the Board proposes for this regulation will not change any substantive requirement for regulated entities but, instead, are aimed at clarifying existing regulatory requirements.”

Cooperative preschools provide an affordable, effective preschool solution by integrating parent participation.  Cooperative preschools utilize parents in the classroom alongside teachers and parents typically operate, maintain, and organize the preschool on an ongoing basis.  The State Board of Social Services has historically recognized the beneficial role of parent-run cooperative preschools by providing specific exceptions in existing Licensed Child Day Care Centers regulations.  The proposed regulations, however, have changed the exception for cooperative preschools so that, as currently worded, the exceptions do not provide the historical regulatory relief needed for these small, independent preschools to continue to operate in an affordable, effective manner.

At issue are the sections related to the orientation and ongoing training of child care staff.  As background, the regulations currently consider volunteers staff for the purposes of these regulations if the volunteer is counted in the staff-to-children ratios, among other things.  For the purposes of parent-run cooperative preschools, parents are volunteers in practice, but are considered staff for the purposes of these regulations because they are counted in the staff-to-children ratios.  As a result, parent volunteers are required to abide by the orientation and ongoing training requirements as laid out in the regulations.

The State Board of Social Services provided adequate regulatory relief in the current regulations for parent volunteers in the areas of both orientation and ongoing training, stating, “Parents who participate in cooperative preschool centers shall complete four hours of orientation training per year.” (22 VAC 40-185-240 (C)(5))  The proposed regulations, however, have effectively rendered this exception meaningless.  Please find below three recommendations for incorporation into the proposed regulations to continue to allow the operation of parent-run cooperative preschools.

• First, the proposed regulations separate orientation requirements from ongoing training requirements.  However, the proposed regulations maintain the existing exception for parent-run cooperative preschools only in the ongoing training requirements section.  It is recommended that the proposed regulations provide an exception to the orientation requirements for parents participating in the operation of a cooperative preschool, just as the current regulations provide.

• Second, the proposed regulations word the ongoing training exception as follows, “In a cooperative preschool center that is organized, administered, and maintained by parents of children in care, parents who are not considered staff shall complete four hours of training each year.” (22 VAC 40-185-245 (c))  It should be noted that parents who are not considered staff are not participating in the cooperative preschool.  In other words, there is no reason to except these parents because the regulations do not apply to them in the first place.  The exception should apply to parents who are considered staff, as noted above, given that those parents are the ones participating in the cooperative preschools.  The current regulation recognizes this fact.  It is recommended that the proposed exception be reworded as follows, “In a cooperative preschool center that is organized, administered, and maintained by parents of children in care, parents who are considered staff shall complete four hours of training each year.”

• Finally, it is recommended that the compliance date for any finalized regulations, after taking into account the recommended changes noted above, be postponed until the 2019 academic year, at the earliest.  This will provide smaller preschools with limited resources the ability to budget and plan for the significant proposed changes.

Thank you for your consideration in preserving preschool choice and reducing unnecessary regulatory burden.