ALPHARETTA, GA-- With more than a hundred children in her care each day at Brookside Academy, Mindy Goldenberg says she doesn't flinch at the regulations she has to follow in order to keep her state license.
"I think asking my teachers to get criminal background checks, and have my van checked every year for an annual inspection, being CPR / first aid trained, that's reasonable expectations," Goldenberg said.
Her only complaint: That hundreds of facilities that offer child care services don't have the same regulations she does -- like places that offer karate or other programs which extend for half a day or longer. The state exempts them from regulations, despite their similarities with day care centers.
"Every child should be in the same safety standards, is what I think," Goldenberg said.
Now the state is proposing new rules for those exempt facilities - rules that critics say will further deregulate an industry that they say is already woefully under-regulated.
The new rules would
- eliminate limits on the number of days Mothers Morning Out programs can operate, and extend the number of hours per week a child can attend;
- extend the per-child hours-per-week for short-term babysitting facilities from eight to ten;
- allow day camps to operate up to 12 hours per day instead of seven;
- remove necessary accreditation of day camps by the American Camping Association.
"I"m not sure I agree that these are less regulations," said Kay Helwig, the state's assistant commissioner for child care. "We are still regulating, monitoring, overseeing child care programs -- as we do now, to make sure programs are safe."
Helwig says the state is simply modernizing its rules.
Goldenberg contends the new rules would shortchange the safety of children.
The state is holding a public hearing on the changes tonight:
November 16, 2011
Rockdale Career Academy Auditorium
1064 Culpepper Drive
Conyers, Georgia 30094
5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.