Missouri governor blocks repeal of child care center rules

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Jay Nixon acted quickly Friday to squelch his administration's attempt to repeal health and safety standards for hundreds of Missouri child care centers run by religious organizations.

The State Board of Health had voted Thursday to rescind the regulations after health department staff advised that the rules went beyond what was allowed by state law. The next step would have been to publish the repeal in the Missouri Register and solicit public comment.

But Nixon said Friday that the board's action was only advisory and that he has directed the Department of Health and Senior Services not to rescind the child care regulations.

"The safety of children in Missouri child care centers is critical, and my administration is committed to ensuring the protection of those children," Nixon said in a written statement.

Among the regulations targeted for repeal were ones prohibiting child care providers from being drunk or on drugs or posing a threat to children. Others that would have been repealed require caregivers to remain in the room with children at all times and cap the number of infants and toddlers in a single room at 24.

The rules have been in effect since July 30, 1995, without facing a legal challenge, the department said. But agency staff recently concluded they ran contrary to a 1993 law that prohibits the state from interfering with the programming and instruction or hiring, supervision and terms for employees of religious-based child care facilities.

On Friday, a department official said the agency would comply with the governor's wishes.

"We're taking a fresh look at the opinions we previously had," said Teresa Generous, director of the department's Division of Regulation and Licensure. "And we'll move forward on the legislative front" to try to change the child care law.

Missouri has 4,324 child care facilities and nurseries, according to the Department of Health and Senior Services. The regulation repeal would have applied to 590 license-exempt facilities, the vast majority of which are run by religious organizations.

Although Nixon blocked the regulatory repeal, "the damage is done," said Karen Werner, executive director of the Missouri Association of Child Care Providers.

"They've already announced to the entire world that the 590 centers, they have no say over," said Werner, who operates two licensed facilities and one that is exempt from licensure. "I have that license-exempt center, so I could just light a match to that [regulation] book and let it go up in flames."

Generous said she didn't expect many religious-based child care centers to stop following health and safety regulations because of the public uncertainty about whether the regulations are banned by state law.

"A vast majority of the license-exempt programs, they have the best interest of the children in mind," she said.