Full text of Our Neighborhood Comments

New language may unintentionally restrict loose part and recycled material use.

This new standard, 8VAC20-781-430 G. “Disposable products shall be used once and discarded”, creates a lack of clarity about the use of recycled materials for play. We don't think this is intended to say programs couldn't use bottle caps, wine corks, tin cans, fruit containers, and the other awesome recycled materials for play. We do worry it may be interpreted that way by some licensing representatives. There are many beautiful books about the use of loose parts with children and the new CLASS Environment measure explicitly looks for the presence of recycled materials. We think just adding: “Clean and safe recycled materials may be used for play.” would be helpful. 

Maintaining infant’s daily record sheets for 60 days is an administrative burden that pushes towards unnecessary digitization of infant records with potential negative consequences for the quality of care for infants.

Daily records of infants' sleep, diapering, food, and activities are used by the staff to support infant’s care and provided to parents to ease the transition between home and school. 8VAC20-781-410 H requires that those records are kept for 60 calendar days and is unnecessary. This will push providers even more towards digital systems, which ease the record keeping requirement but increase the screens in the lives of the youngest children. Worse yet those screens that would be needed to keep these records grab the attention of the teachers who are supposed to be building a secure attachment with children. We encourage you to search for “screens and the still face experiment” to learn about the harms that distraction by a screen can have for young children’s attachment. This regulation pushes programs that use paper systems towards electronic devices while providing no benefit. Our program uses little white boards which are sustainable and avoid screens but would be impossible to continue to use with the addition of this requirement. 

The requirement that orientation training to be completed within seven days of employment is impractical for part-time staff.

8VAC20-781-140 B “The orientation training must be completed by such staff prior to working alone with a child and within seven days of the staff member’s date of  employment”. This is not a new requirement but it is a burden. Part-time and substitute staff need more time. We think giving individuals six weeks like North Carolina does or a month would be very helpful. 

Requiring teachers to wash hands before a diaper change which is time consuming when we could be with children, seems unnecessary, and impractical.

8VAC20-781-490 D b. Requiring washing hands prior to changing a diaper is a waste of time and energy. 

Requiring teachers clean and sanitize the diaper trash system daily seems unnecessary.

While cleaning is generally good, it seems like 8VAC20-781-500 J. which requires daily cleaning and sanitizing of the diaper trash system, is a lot more work for minimal benefit. The diaper trash can has a liner that's removed, and daily cleaning and sanitizing of the cans would take probably 30 minutes a day in a medium sized center when the next day you just put another diaper liner and trash in there again. It is already contained and the cans are never touched because it’s mandated to be a touch-free system. The only time the inside of the can would be handled would be to put in and take out the bags. Perhaps cleaning the exterior of the trash can or in our case the cabinet that contains the diaper system would be appropriate or perhaps the sanitation of the system without the wiping clean. Of course, it would be cleaned if visibly dirty, but it is generally covered in a bag and not touched.

We are missing an opportunity to advocate for water and not other beverages for children.

Children should only be drinking water throughout the day. 8VAC20-781-620 D allows other beverages and should be changed to remove that option. This is consistent with USDA CACFP guidelines which require water throughout the day and other beverages only with meals. 

Additionally, there are a number of changes that we think could be a little better worded and could better achieve your stated purpose of clear and concise standards, but don’t have a significant impact on our program: 

• Replacing the term “resilient surfacing” with “protective surfacing” seems to be less clear.

• The addition of the regulation 8VAC20-781-430 C “requiring infant toys and materials to be cleaned and sanitized daily” is likely to be a burden for providers. It also may have an unintended consequence of reducing the quantity, diversity, and complexity of materials available to infants. We do think it’s best practice and it is a significant burden. 

• 8VAC20-781-40 A 1 is very confusing. Draft Language states: “Injury prevention. Such policies and procedures shall include how the center will identify, mitigate, and prevent hazards in all areas where children will be in care, including the reporting and documenting of incidents, which the licensee shall use to facilitate the annual review of the policies and procedures.” The comma then which clause doesn’t seem to make sense to me, perhaps instead of which it could say “and how the licensee will use the documentation to facilitate the annual review of the policies and procedures.”. 

• 8VAC20-781-40 A 20 Drinking water is new and confusing. In the past, programs on public drinking water didn’t have any water testing requirements. If this is added there will need to be significant training and resources to get those programs connected with the proper testing and reporting protocols.

• 8VAC20-781-60 B 7 references another section, and it seems like it would be more logical to just move that section there. 

• 8VAC20-781-40 D is very confusing. We don't know what you’re trying to say- “we must provide” or “could not provide”. We think maybe using the numbers of the sections could help or splitting staff and parents/volunteers could help.

• 8VAC20-781-60 A is unclear if ‘on premises’ limits the use of digital files in some way.

• 8VAC20-781-70 A 3 requires new details to document someone’s professional development training and it’s unclear what appropriate “evidence that the training has been completed” would be. 

• I think some of the language changes to try to help ease the director role have actually made it more complicated. The addition of “each week” in 8VAC20-781-110 A is concerning- does that mean that a director cannot take a vacation for a week? It simply says the director is on site, whereas in the past a backup director or another staff member that meets the director qualifications could meet that standard. 

• It refers to 8VAC20-781-110 as “director’s responsibilities” but it doesn’t actually list any responsibilities and B requires orientation training on the responsibilities that are never described. What’s unclear to me is what aspects of the director’s responsibilities the department is concerned would not be taken care of in the director’s absence. Training someone to be a back up for me when we am out of the office wouldn’t necessarily assume they would take on financial planning, payroll, writing policy, enrollment, tours, hiring, or any of the other large projects a director handles. It seems that a person simply needs to execute the emergency plan if necessary, be a point of contact if a licensing agent were to visit, and perhaps handle scheduling needs. The wording isn’t helpful and I’m unsure of its intent.

• Throughout the standards, there is inconsistency in the use of terms around behavior. “Discipline” is used in 8VAC20-781-390. “Behavior guidance” is used in 8VAC20-781-380, 8VAC20-781-120, and 8VAC20-781-40. “Behavioral problems” is used in 8VAC20-781-410. “Classroom management” is used in 8VAC20-781-290 and 8VAC20-781-140. We find the use of “classroom management” in the orientation section, 8VAC20-781-140, particularly problematic, and think “behavioral guidance” would be more appropriate.

• The CPR requirements are really confusing, because there is this overview of first aid and CPR as a part of orientation but that’s not actual CPR training. We don’t know how it could be simplified but simplifying it would be really helpful for providers. 

• 8VAC20-781-180 A and B are extremely wordy and repetitive.

• The new string and cord standard 8VAC20-781-230 D is a bit too broad and seems unclear as to what needs to be restricted. Ribbon, lacing bead string, and string pull toys are all safe for children under six. Age six seems like a really long time to not allow things like necklaces. Perhaps using language around looped cords would help provide more clarity.

• Standard 8VAC20-781-260 M, N, & O are repetitive and long and it seems unnecessary. We think even if the resulting standard were slightly more restrictive it would be worthwhile to simplify this. 

• It would be helpful if 8VAC20-781-280 E 5 were 90 minutes, given that 8VAC20-781-270 E is 90 minutes.

• Preschoolers and twos should never be confined to equipment. 8VAC20-781-350 E allows children to be placed in swings, highchairs, cribs, play pens, or other similar pieces of equipment. We would advocate toddlers should also not be confined to equipment, but at the very least, this should not be allowed with twos and preschoolers. We would advocate for: “The licensee shall ensure that staff shall not confine children who are awake and not actively eating in one piece of equipment including: highchairs, cribs, play pens, or other similar pieces of equipment.”

• These words are unnecessary: 8VAC20-781-500 G. “Disposable diapers and disposable training pants shall be disposed in a covered leakproof or plastic-lined storage system that is either foot-operated or used in such a way that neither the staff member's hand nor the soiled diaper touches an exterior surface of the storage system during disposal”.

• I would advocate for stopping the use of toilet chairs; they are unsanitary. 

• The addition of first aid kits outside is fine, but the digital thermometer will probably not last outside. 8VAC20-781-590 C 8.

• 8VAC20-781-590 C 11. A Requires a first aid instruction manual in the first aid kit and it is useless. We recommend that it is removed from the first aid kit list.

• I recommend removing the word “disposable” from 8VAC20-781-630 N, because children don’t drink from just any bottle; it’s more appropriate to have the bottles children use than disposable bottles. 

• Tummy time, while beneficial, is difficult to document in this way. 8VAC20-781-320 F The majority of states do not require tummy time at all. The only ones we could find that did require tummy time, Michigan and Tennessee, did not require documentation of the time. 

• 8VAC20-781-520 E 2 States “Only with written authorization from the parent that has not expired.” It is confusing because it’s unclear why or how a parental authorization for medication would expire.

To end, I’d like to celebrate the following changes:

• No longer needing emergency contact addresses will reduce unnecessary paperwork for programs and families! 8VAC20-781-60 B 3

• Extending the beginning- and end-of-day period in which a room can open without a lead teacher to 90 min from 60 min gives a bit more flexibility for programs open long days when we know parents need early and late care. 8VAC20-781-270 E

• Medications being able to be authorized longer than a year by a physician is really helpful for those long-standing meds, reducing paperwork, doctor visits, and administrative burden. 8VAC20-781-520 H

• It’s helpful to allow kindergarten and above children to use their own topical products so that children can learn about and participate in their care. 8VAC20-781-580 C

• The addition of 8VAC20-781-580 B adds helpful clarity to protocols for prescription topical ointments.

• Allowing parents to make their child’s allergies public is helpful, not only reducing regulatory burden on programs but also it likely will keep children with allergies safe. 8VAC20-781-30 C

Sincerely,

Jennifer Slack

Founder and Pedagogical Leader