Greetings,

We are asking for your immediate help to make sure that pending
legislation regulating home child care providers will enhance
and maintain child safety, improve quality and enable an
adequate number of providers are available to perform this vital
service. House Bill 342, now pending in the Ohio House Health
Committee will make changes to the law governing home child care
providers. Although AFSCME Ohio Council 8 supports quality child
care, we do have some concerns which are listed below:

SHIFT OVERLAP
The bill requires that no more than six (6) children can be
cared for in the home at the same time. Some providers have two
shifts of children on a given day. The bill makes no provision
for what would happen if a parent from the first shift is late
picking up their child and the provider now has more than the
six (6) children allowed. To enforce this provision the provider
would have to send the parent and their child away from care to
wait until the late parent picked up their child. How does this
help anyone?

NUMBER of LICENSE PER HOUSEHOLD
The bill restricts more than one (1) license being issued per
address. What happens if the provider is ill or has an
emergency? How would a parent obtain child care at the last
minute? Allowing for more than one license per household would
allow for another individual to provide quality care.

LICENSING and INSPECTION
Licensing and inspection of the home is presently the duty of
the counties. A provision in the bill would transfer these
duties to the state. Most county administrators, those working
in the system and parents who benefit from inspections would
prefer that the inspection duties remain local. Should there be
an urgent need for an inspection, someone locally is available
to do it at once. Also, these people benefit from relationships
they have developed with each other over time. Moving this
function to the state will cost the state money it does not have
to spare.

REASONABLE FINES
The bill would require home child care providers to pay fines at
the same level as a child care center even though centers are
reimbursed at a higher rate. We believe the fines should be
adjusted to reflect this discrepancy.

Please visit http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/hb342 to send
the Health Committee members a pre-written letter asking them to
address our concerns with House Bill 342 or you can phone them
at the numbers listed below. We have also included the Ohio
Council 8 region in which these members reside. Thank you for
all of your help!

HEALTH COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Rep. Lynn Wachtmann - HD75 (Toledo)
Chair
(614) 466-3760 - office

Rep. Shawn Webster - HD53 (Cincinnati)
Vice Chair
(614) 644-5094 - office
(513) 868-6221 - district

Rep. Brian Williams - HD41 (Akron)
Ranking Democrat
(614) 644-5085 - office

Rep. Jay Hottinger - HD71 (Columbus)
(614) 466-1482 - office
(740) 349-7784 - district

Rep. Barbara Boyd - HD9 (Cleveland)
(614) 644-5079 - office
(216) 321-7601 - district

Rep. Barbara Sears - HD46 (Toledo)
(614) 466-1731 - office

Rep. Kenny Yuko - HD07 (Cleveland)
(614) 466-8012 - office
(440) 442-0946 - district

Rep. Fred Strahorn - HD40 (Dayton)
(614) 466-2960 - office
(937) 227-3207 - district

Rep. Matt Huffman - HD4 (Toledo)
(614) 466-9624 - office
(419) 227-3423 - district

Rep. Stephen Slesnick - HD52 (Akron)
(614) 466-8030 - district

Rep. Michael DeBose - HD12 (Cleveland)
(614) 466-1408 - office
(216) 751-8073 - district

Rep. Edna Brown - HD48 (Toledo)
(614) 466-1401 - office
(419) 243-5691 - district

Rep. Joe Uecker - HD66 (Cincinnati)
(614) 466-8134 - office

Rep. Robert Hagan - HD60 (Youngstown)
(614) 466-9435 - office
(330) 746-8091 - district

Rep. Shannon Jones - HD67 (Dayton)
(614) 644-6027 - office

Rep. Tom Letson - HD64 (Youngstown)
(614) 466-5358 - office
(330) 393-1529 - district

Rep. Bruce Goodwin - HD74 (Toledo)
(614) 644-5091 - office

Rep. John Otterman - HD45 (Akron)

(614) 644-6037 - office

Rep. Robert Mecklenborg - HD30 (Cincinnati)
(614) 466-8258 - office

Rep. Lorraine Fende - HD62 (Cleveland)
(614) 466-7251 - office
(440) 943-0202 - district

Rep. Carol-Ann Schindel - HD63 (Cleveland)
(614) 644-6074 - office
(440) 254-8294 - district

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