CHILD CARE: HOUSE OKs ISSUE, LAWMAKERS DIVIDED

Two Cape Girardeau area lawmakers voted on opposite sides Thursday over legislation that would extend state licensing to church-run child-care centers.

A divided Missouri House Thursday approved the legislation by a 97-60 vote, sending it to the Senate.

State Rep. Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau, voted for the measure, citing safety and health concerns. State Rep. David Schwab, R-Jackson, voted against it. Schwab said the measure has too many burdensome regulations that go beyond health and safety.

The House has sought to regulate church-run child-care centers in previous years. But, historically, such legislation has been opposed in the Senate, Kasten said.

"I am convinced that we need to do something about health and safety for children," she said.

Kasten said the state licenses nursing homes, hospitals and even beauty shops. She said it makes sense to license day-care centers, including those that are church run.

"There are thousands and thousands of children in unlicensed church centers," she said. "There are no regulations and no safety assurances at all," she said.

"This is just the state protecting its citizens, I believe," said Kasten.

The House measure would require church-run facilities to meet the same minimum standards in terms of health, fire, safety and staff-to-child ratios that non-church centers must meet.

The measure has the backing of the Missouri Division of Family Services, which oversees child-care licensing.

"Our focus is on health and safety standards," said Carmen Schulze, director of the Division of Family Services. She said the state agency is interested in assuring "accessibility, affordability and child care that appropriately meets children's needs."

The legislation would apply to not only church-run centers but government-run centers that currently don't fall under the licensing law.

In all, Schulze said, the legislation would extend licensing to 550 child-care centers that currently are exempt from such regulatory control.

But the legislation, she said, would require the state agency to grant a center's request to be excluded from various rules and regulations unless they involve health and safety.

The burden of proof would rest with the state agency to show that such variances should not be granted, she said.

The legislation prohibits the Division of Family Services from interfering with the curriculum of church-run centers or specifying conditions of employment outside of rules and regulations pertaining to health and safety training, Schulze said.

Kasten, who has in past years favored extending health and safety regulations to church-run centers, conceded that the current legislation contains stronger regulatory provisions than in the past.

"This year it is a little stronger toward more regulation than it has been," said Kasten. "I have had a little mixed emotion about it this year," she said.

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Kaye Steinmetz, D-Florissant, calls for licensing of church-run centers, which involves an enforcement provision.

Her bill last year didn't require licensing; instead, it called for the centers to meet the regulations and file a statement that they were in compliance.

Schwab said he voted the last three years for measures that would have required church-run centers to meet health and safety standards. But he said he voted against the Steinmetz bill because it would impose more detailed regulations on church-run centers than contained in previous legislation.

"I am concerned about how detailed we get in our regulation of business," he said.

Schwab said he had favored an alternative measure that would have regulated such day-care facilities only in terms of minimum health and safety standards. "On health and safety of the child, I think we have some minimum responsibilities with the state," he said.

Schwab said he had heard from representatives of several area church-run day-care centers who expressed opposition to the Steinmetz bill. Their main concern, he said, was that such legislation could ultimately lead to even more government regulation of day-care centers.

Schwab said there's a real question whether such legislation will be approved in the Senate. "It has always had a tough way to go in the Senate; I expect it to have a lot of opposition in the Senate this year," he said.