The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced that it will seek to impose strict national health and safety standards for any child-care facility that utilizes federal funding.

The HHS proposals will require first aid training for all workers in federally subsidized child care centers.  About 513,000 centers that receive government subsidies would be affected by the new regulations. About one in five children who receive the child-care subsidy receive care in unlicensed and unregulated facilities. This is troubling because the potential for serious injuries is much higher at unlicensed facilities.

Although federal standards are already in place for child care facilities, they only require the prevention of infectious diseases; safe premises; and minimal health and safety training. Many states have additional standards. For example, Arizona has a number of regulations that govern everything from the required size of a room to how many children can be in a room per adult. The new HHS regulations would not impede a state’s ability to license a particular facility.

The proposed regulations will make most of an impact in states with lax standards. Virgina, ranked by the Child Care America as the state with the lowest child care standards, allows providers to care for 6 unrelated children before requiring a background check or licensing. On the other end of the spectrum, the District of Columbia, requires caregivers to get a license even if they only care for one child.

HHS has opened the regulations up to public comment for 75 days.

Source: Brigid Schulte, HHS Announces First Nationwide Safety Standards for Child Care, Washington Post (May 16, 2013)