A governor-appointed commission Friday approved the state's new licensing requirements for child care centers.
The Arkansas Early Childhood Commission took only minutes with no discussion on a telephone conference to unanimously approve the first overhaul of the regulations in 45 years. The proposed regulations will now go before two legislative committees for review before being implemented.
It was the third attempt by the commission to vote on the project that has taken two years of planning, numerous public hearings, an outpouring of public response and input, and a legislative review.
The hundreds of pages of changes first went before the commission at its regular meeting July 15, but not enough members showed up to constitute a quorum. The commission was also unable to vote at a special teleconference July 25 because there were not enough members present.
"I want to go on the record that this has never happened before," Commission Chairman Jackie Govan said at the end of Friday's teleconference. "I appreciate y'all hanging in there with us. We are in the process of making sure the vacant positions are filled. It is a rigorous process. I appreciate all of you showing up on the call this morning."
There are currently four vacancies on the 25-member board. The commission requires 13 members to be present to create a quorum. There were 13 members present on Friday's telephone meeting, but four members -- Glenda Ezell, Kathy Pillow-Price, Barbara Warren and Rhonda Ahrent -- voted by proxy.
The commission's bylaws allow members to send a proxy to meetings as long as that person meets the same criteria in knowledge and expertise as the commissioner being represented.
Arkansas Attorney General Opinion No. 90-034 says "no member of such a body can vote who is not present when the question is put to the membership." Attorney general opinions are nonbinding.
In an emailed response, Department of Human Services spokesman Amy Webb said that Robert's Rules of Order permit proxy voting if the organization's charter or bylaws allow it.
"The commission's bylaws allow it to utilize proxies. The purpose of a proxy would be to attend the meeting to ensure quorum or to ensure that the member's opinion is expressed, including through a vote. The name of the proxy and the name of the member was read aloud and made clear to the public," Webb said in an email.
Furthermore, she wrote that there were enough votes without the proxy to move the regulations forward. Webb said the department would study the attorney general's opinion and would advise the commission to revise its bylaws if necessary.
The proposal -- which includes new qualification requirements for directors of child care centers, revised staff-to-child ratios, additional playground equipment restrictions and hundreds of other changes -- will now be sent to two legislative committees for review.
"We believe these regulations will improve the quality of child care and early childhood education for children across the state. The process has gone well so far. We've taken a lot of feedback from providers and families and made some changes to the rules," said Kate Luck, a Human Services Department spokesman.
"The process isn't over, however. We still have to appear before two committees before they will be implemented. However, we believe the committees will see the same value in these regulations that we do."
The commission also voted Friday to extend the proposed grace period to four years for existing child care centers to comply with the new staff-to-child ratios.
Hundreds of child care providers spoke out against the initial proposal by the Human Services Department's Child Care and Early Childhood Education Division to immediately implement the new ratios once the revised regulations go into effect. The cost to carry out the requirements, they said, would increase rates and could put some centers out of business.
The new proposal calls for staff-to-child ratios to be altered from current ratios of:
• One staff member for every six children to one staff member for every five children from birth to 18 months old.
• One staff member for every nine children to one staff member for every eight children from 18 months to 36 months old.
• One staff member for every 20 children to one staff member for every 18 children who are kindergarten age and older.
Debbie Mays, owner of Bright Beginnings in Siloam Springs, said in an interview Friday that she was pleased with the passage of the new minimum staff-to-child ratios.
"There is no way that one provider can take care of six infants," she said. "It is paramount that we take care of that. Kids that come from a quality environment do so much better later in school."
She added that the definition of "quality care" is different from provider to provider, but having a minimum standard that puts the children first sets a good foundation from which to start.
"Minimum regulations are just that; they're minimum. I am not a strong advocate for the minimum care," she said. "It's always the places that are not providing quality care that end up making us all look bad. We need to support those people, mentor them and lift them up."
Commissioner Jody Veit-Edrington, who is also the coordinator for the early childhood program with the North Little Rock School District, called Friday's decision "a great day for children in our state.'
"The division and the commission have been working on this for quite some time to provide higher quality care for children that are in child care in our state," Veit-Edrington said.
She compared the current staff-to-child ratios to one mother having six babies at one time. The entire community would come out to help, she said.
"Why are we willing to put one child care provider with a high school diploma alone in a classroom with six infants?" Veit-Edrington asked. "We all got to the point that we realized that we are very understanding, empathetic on the business side of it, but [the overhaul is] the right thing to do for children."
The proposal will be sent to the state Capitol in the next two weeks to be scheduled for review first by the Joint Committee on Children and Youth, then by the Joint Committee on Rules and Regulations, Luck said.
"Depending on how long it takes us to get on the schedule, they may not get approved until September or October. We will send notice to providers and give them a window before we begin enforcement," Luck said.
Metro on 08/02/2014