House Bill 342 is a bill pending in the Ohio Legislature that will make changes to law governing in-home child care. AFSCME Ohio Council 8 supports efforts to enhance and maintain child safety, improve quality and enable an adequate number of providers are available to perform this vital service. AFSCME will support legislation that accomplishes these aims. As representatives of Ohio childcare providers, AFSCME wants and expects to be involved in discussions concerning legislation and regulation affecting our members.

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I'm writing to express my thanks to you for representing not only your district but all citizens of Ohio in the 127th General Assembly. As a member of the Ohio House Health committee you have before you legislation that would make changes to the law governing home child care providers. House Bill 342 is the bill that would create these changes however there are issues that should be addressed before this bill moves forward.

First is the issue of "overlap" which can occur when a parent is late picking up their child. Since the bill only allows for a limit of six (6) children in the home at one time, what will happen should the provider be over the limit through no fault of their own? For example, when a parent is late in picking up a child and children for the next shift have been already been dropped off. There should be a provision put in place which would deal with this type of occurrence.

Second, the bill should allow for more than one (1) license per household. In many cases parents find it difficult to find quality daycare for their children. If a provider should fall ill or have an emergency where would a parent obtain last-minute child care? The bill should allow for another licensed provider of the same address to provide care.

Third, currently counties have the duties of licensing and inspecting the homes of child care providers. For good reason most parents, providers and county administrators believe these duties should remain at the county level. Moving this function to the state will cost millions the state does not have and removes the local community from this function.

And finally, the bill would require home child care providers to pay fines at the same rate as child care centers even though the centers are reimbursed at a higher rate. I believe that these fines should be adjusted to reflect this discrepancy.

Thank you for your time and attention regarding this issue and your commitment to the people of Ohio.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
November 28, 2008