Ridiculous Regulations

[SilverSabre25]

I know we've all read things that other states do that has us thanking our lucky stars saying, "thank goodness I'm not there...."

What are some of the regs you consider to be the most ridiculous in your area?

[Unregistered]

The whole tb test every 3 years??? Why are we so concerned about tb? There a million other things we could be concerned about but tb? It's not very common anymore. Also in Michigan,home daycares can only take care of six kids per person.I've been at this for years and can properly care for more then 6 by myself.I don't understand different ratio for different states.Soif you live in Utah you can care for 16 or however many there is but because I live in Michigan I can only have six.I think they should increase it if you've been doing daycare for more then 10 years without any violations on your record.Just my opinion!

[spinnymarie]

Illinois seems generally reasonable, except for the ratios, I agree with PP.
In Illinois you can watch six kids under 5 by yourself, or, if you get a 'group home' license, and jump through extra hoops and have an ECE degree, you can watch... six kids under 5 by yourself. Or 12 with a full-time assistant. So there is technically ZERO reason to be bigger, and two people could make just as much money doing separately as they could doing it together. Which makes no sense to me.

[Blackcat31]

I don't think my state has any weird or difficult rules to follow.

I am comfortable with the adult to child ratios and haven't run into any licensing rules that were difficult to follow.

In my state you can't apply to be a large group provider though until you've been in business for atleast 1 year without any violations.

My county participates with QRIS too and any providers that have a 4 star rating (max rating) cannot have ANY violations or correction orders or they automatically lose their 4 star rating.

[Crazy8]

school age being included in our max of 5 kids.

biggest thing is that a provider in other states is able to watch DOUBLE the number of kids I can - why, just because they are over a state line???

[Play Care]

In some states your own children are considered day care kids until 12 or 13 and must follow day care rules even if the spouse is home. My own kids are 7 and 8 and I can't imagine, as my day care is only for under 5.

[Annalee]

If you go online to my state's child care website there are violations listed such as.....toilet paper placed on shelf behind commodes considered unaccessible, provider burning scented candle, etc.....I understand the need for supervision particularly with adult/child ratios, but some of these petty things make providers feel like the licensing/daycare troopers are after us BIG-TIME!!!!!! I look for a large decline in providers with the rapid increase in "write-ups".......

[Meeko]

The whole tb test every 3 years??? Why are we so concerned about tb? There a million other things we could be concerned about but tb? It's not very common anymore. Also in Michigan,home daycares can only take care of six kids per person.I've been at this for years and can properly care for more then 6 by myself.I don't understand different ratio for different states.Soif you live in Utah you can care for 16 or however many there is but because I live in Michigan I can only have six.I think they should increase it if you've been doing daycare for more then 10 years without any violations on your record.Just my opinion!

I am in Utah and am licensed for 16. However, there must be TWO providers the second I go over 8 kids.

[Second Home]

I find it funny when they check the temp in my refrigerator , I know they want the food to be stored at the right temp to be safe . It is just funny to watch them put a thermometer in my fridge and wait .

Here the ratios can change by county . We can have 6 or can petition to have 8 if your home is large enough . Even 1 child in care in your home and you must be licensed.

[Heidi]

If you go online to my state's child care website there are violations listed such as.....toilet paper placed on shelf behind commodes considered unaccessible, provider burning scented candle, etc.....I understand the need for supervision particularly with adult/child ratios, but some of these petty things make providers feel like the licensing/daycare troopers are after us BIG-TIME!!!!!! I look for a large decline in providers with the rapid increase in "write-ups".......

Yeah...I saw a large center in Milwaukee who takes school agers got cited for lack of toilet paper at 4:30 in the afternoon. Plus, they bathroom was messy....paper all over the floor, etc.

Go to any school in the country (or heck, many of our bathrooms) and see what happens when a group of school-agers troops through there for the first 20 minutes after arrival.

Does anyone know a child alive who would come say "hey, we're out of toilet paper" AFTER they've gone to the bathroom?

[Meyou]

The only local one that really irritates me is that a public playground with three large openings on a busy corner two blocks from my house with 3 streets to cross on the walk is considered an acceptable safe outdoor space but my fenced backyard is not because there is no fence between my house and my neighbors.

[Annalee]

I find it funny when they check the temp in my refrigerator , I know they want the food to be stored at the right temp to be safe . It is just funny to watch them put a thermometer in my fridge and wait .

Here the ratios can change by county . We can have 6 or can petition to have 8 if your home is large enough . Even 1 child in care in your home and you must be licensed.

We have to leave a thermometer in our fridge and freezer and will be written up by health/environment if it isn't in there! They don't even supply their own.

[Blackcat31]

Does anyone know a child alive who would come say "hey, we're out of toilet paper" AFTER they've gone to the bathroom?

Yes, ALL of mine.

If I was paid strictly based on how many times I've heard "Miss C there's no toilet paper!!!!!!!!" yelled from the bathroom, I'd be doing pretty well financially. ::

[nanglgrl]

Our state is pretty fair on regulations but there are very few that are ridiculous and those ones annoy me to the core. I've posted this before but here I go again because these couple of regs annoy me because they lack common sense and that's my biggest pet peeve.

If we have a swimming pool the fence has to be 4 feet taller than the pool, if the pool is in-ground the fence only has to be 4 feet tall. So if I have a 4ft deep above ground I need an 8ft fence but if I have an 8ft deep below ground I only need a 4ft fence. There are other requirements for the fence surrounding the pool but the height requirements are the only thing I have an issue with.

The other reg that drives me nuts was that if we are a level B home (up to 12 children) we have to have 2 direct exits to our basement if we use it for daycare but if we are a level A home (up to 6 children) we don't. The rule itself doesn't neccesarily bother me it's the fine print. An egress can be used as the second exit but you have to have stairs going up to the egress window. On the outside of the window (in the window well) you are supposed to have stairs going up to ground level. That probably doesn't seem so bad to most but we also have to have a gate on the stairs so children don't get hurt. I've been told the reasoning behind the stairs is so the children can escape if he provider isn't present. Sooo..the child is supposed to get over a gate purposely set up so they can't get over it, unlock a window, open it and bust out the screen? Silliness. The entire idea just drives me nuts but then there is also the practicality. If you've ever seen an egress window well you know they are pretty deep but not very wide..it's impossible to put in steps outside that meet building code regulations. I've seen photos of some providers that have followed this rule and their steps are about 5 inches deep..not enough for most feet. The other problem is that by putting steps in the city will not pass your egress when they inspect it. The city (and most places) wants there to be a certain amount of area free in an egress well so a firefighter can get in there and through the window with all of his equiptment on. The city will also not pass the steps during inspection because they don't meet building code. So you can either follow city code or regs but if you don't follow city code you would be in trouble with your insurance if a person was hurt on the illegal steps.

In our state you can have 5 children without any oversite and 6 with oversite (more if you meet certain requirements). Our state really wants people to get registered, I think the last I heard 1 out of 3 providers is registered. With registration and one extra child you get unannounced inspections, training geared towards people who didn't graduate high school that makes you want to slam your head into the table, a lot of paper work and regs. With no registration you get none of that, are perfectly legal and can only have 1 less child but seriously who would know how many children you care for since there is no oversite? I've seen so many long term registered providers go unregistered in the last few years since they started having unannounced inspections on registered providers. They keep making more rules for registered providers and of course less providers are becoming registered. It just seems like they are doing things backwards, our state really needs to work towards mandatory registration or just give up trying to regulate childcare.

[Meeko]

During an inspection, licensing must watch us do a diaper change.

I'm a mother of four and have done childcare for nearly 30 years.

I have changed THOUSANDS of diapers.

I think I got this.......

I find it annoying to have a women young enough to be my daughter and who has no children....watching me to make sure I can change a diaper correctly. I was changing them before she was born.

She told me it's a stupid reg and she feels stupid doing it. Supposedly it's to make sure sanitary procedures are followed. But she said even the most dirty of providers is going to follow procedure if she's being watched...so what's the point?!

Our regs change a little each year. I'm sure it's just so someone at HQ has job security.