8VAC20-781-40 3. “Safe sleeping practices and sudden infant death syndrome awareness.” Are programs that do not serve infants & toddlers still required to have these policies and train teachers on them?

8VAC20-781-110 Director Responsibilities Please revise this to say that the director should be “regularly scheduled” to be on site for more than 50% of the time. The way it is written right now, centers will be in violation if a Director takes 3 days or more of vacation or sick time per week.

8VAC20-781-230 Hazardous substances and other harmful agents D.3. Strings and cords long enough to encircle a child’s neck, such as those found on window blinds or drapery cords, shall be inaccessible to children under six years of age.

Please revise this to be clear that it only applies to window and blind cords. The way it is written now, it prohibits kids from having any string about 6” or more, including important activities like lacing lessons, some arts/crafts, some STEM activities, and the kids’ own shoelaces.

8VAC20-781-290 Ratios and group size for balanced mixed age groupings C. A maximum group size of 28 shall be followed whenever children in care are in balanced mixed age groupings.

Why is the group size for balanced mixed age lower than the group size for 3 year olds? Children who are older generally have more self-control and are less likely to disturb classmates or have meltdowns. Having an average older age in the group should mean a larger group size, not the opposite. That’s why the school age group limit is higher.

8VAC20-781-360 Daily care and activities for school-age children Point C says the center shall provide “…outdoor activity except in hazardous conditions for at least one hour per day…” This needs to be edited to remove the word hazardous and clarify that the outdoor time is weather permitting.

8VAC20-781-370 Daily care and activities for children with special needs Subpoint A which requires centers to perform/provide activities recommended by “a professional” is both insulting to childcare teachers by suggesting that they are not considered professionals, and also could cause major problems for centers depending on how this is intended and enforced. Parents often pass along recommendations from their child’s pediatrician about how the school should handle the child’s behavior, and those suggestions often are not possible, practical, or beneficial for the child. Pediatricians usually have little or no experience actually working with kids or implementing the techniques they recommend. Childcare teachers have deep relationships with their students and the knowledge of their individual needs – as well as extensive practice in actually applying behavioral techniques. This language needs to be revised to clarify that centers are not required to follow those recommendations if we don’t agree that it is right for the child, or if we don’t have the resources recommended. Another problem is that “special needs” is too broad – a very large percentage of kids are now diagnosed with one or more of the following: Autism, ADHD, ODD, Conduct Disorder, Speech Articulation Disorder, Receptive and/or Expressive Language Delay, Fine and or Gross Motor Delay, Feeding Abnormalities, etc. Although we work extremely hard to help meet the special needs of these children, we should not be regulated into providing therapies for these children. Also, just because a child has a diagnosis doesn’t mean that they need personalized activities – a high quality program will naturally meet the needs of many of these kids without any specific accommodations. This requirement is unduly burdensome as written, and if you make it harder for programs to accept special needs kids, some programs will stop admitting them.

8VAC20-781-410 Parent Communication and Notification Subpoint J. “Scheduled opportunities for parents to provide feedback on their children…”

Are surveys and forms for written parent responses allowed to meet this standard? If the intent is to require scheduled & documented parent conferences twice per year in person/zoom/telephone, that is a massive increase in time commitment for centers, and adds little value in our opinion.

Highly frequent informal communication along with periodic formal progress report summaries is much more successful and much less work for centers. Labor is our biggest expense, Directors are already overworked, and twice per year conferences will add much more work for very little benefit.

8VAC20-781-430 Equipment and materials Subpoint H. “Provision shall be made for an individual place for each child’s personal belongings.”

What does this mean? Our classrooms have a row of coathooks and kids place lunchboxes on a shared shelf. Does this no longer meet regulations? Are we going to have to buy cubicles?

8VAC20-781-460 Swimming and wading What is the definition of wading in this section? Is a temporary splashpad with water 4” deep considered wading? Some of the subpoints exclude water if it is under 2 feet, but others don’t so we can’t tell if we have to follow them for our temporary splashpad.

8VAC20-781-620 Nutrition and food services F.3. “Centers shall not serve small (marble-sized), round, sticky, or hard foods that are difficult to chew and easy to swallow whole to children under four years of age.”

Please provide at least a partial list of excluded foods. Inspectors aren’t always consistent about what is allowed and what is not allowed. Are standard fruit snacks allowed? In the past, some inspectors have said that cylindrical foods such as string cheese and thick pretzel sticks are excluded. Is that correct?

8VAC20-781-660 Animals and pets Subpoint C is written so broadly and so strictly that it seems to prohibit nature programs like wildlife rescues that visit the center, some hands-on ecology programs, and even biology programs that we do in house like raising caterpillars for release, or oyster gardening projects which are popular with many schools in the Tidewater area.

A tiny gecko living in an aquarium or a parakeet in a cage is a great class pet and completely harmless. Zoo programs that brings a small docile snake, etc. are wonderful experiences for the children. Please reconsider or revise this entire subpoint. Class pets are extremely meaningful to many children, and as anxiety is at extreme levels and kids have fewer opportunities to engage with nature, we desperately need these options. Some centers are going to have to stop doing certain nature programs or get rid of their class pets because of these unnecessary changes, and those kids will be deeply upset.