John Ross on the Dubious Case for Regulating Day Care
Credit: Jean Pierre Lavoie / FlickrThe Washington Post profiled a mother this
week who wants Virginia to impose licensing restrictions on
home-based day cares. Virginia is one of eight states that does not
regulate providers who take care of six or fewer unrelated kids in
their own home. Spurred to activism by the death of her child,
under circumstances that are still under investigation, the mother
wants the state to require safety training, background checks, and
home inspections for all home-based providers. But as John Ross
reports, the case for regulating day care falls apart under closer
examination. Indeed, Ross writes, what the available numbers show
is that children are at far greater risk of death or abuse at the
hands of parents and family members than they are at either
regulated or unregulated day cares. Should we require the licensing
of parents?