Proposed rules for child care

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The state Department of Social Services wants to tighten regulations governing 3,600 day-care centers in the state. Some day-care providers may complain about the proposed rules, but the regulations are modest and were developed with the input of an advisory panel that included day-care operators.

The proposed regulations strike a balance between the well-being of children and the need to help day-care centers remain affordable.

Day-care centers in South Carolina currently operate under a minimum of regulations relative to those in other states. Workers, for instance, can be as young as 16 years old, although they're supposed to be supervised by someone 18 or older.

The major change proposed by DSS officials would be to lower the ratio of children to staff members, requiring one worker for every five babies rather than the current 1-to-6. For ages 2 to 3, the new ratio would change to 1-to-7 from 1-to-10.

Older children would not require nearly as much supervision. For children 6 to 12, the current rule of one staff person for 23 children would not change.

Those regulations could hardly be called onerous for day-care providers. The ratios are based on Southeastern averages and recommendations from national advisory groups. Even with the lower ratios, South Carolina still will have some of the most lax regulations and highest children-to-staff ratios in the nation.

In some cases, state DSS officials initially proposed tighter ratios but modified their proposals after input from day-care providers. In addition, day-care centers would be given plenty of time to adjust to changes — two years in some cases and four years in others.

The other major change would involve so-called "group sizes" — the number of children who can be in one room at a time. The goal clearly is to keep children in manageable groups for their own safety and well-being.

Currently, the state doesn't mandate any limits on the number of children in a room. The new regulations would allow a maximum of 15 infants in one room at a time. The maximums would rise for older children. For ages 5 to 6, the limit would be 38 children. No group-size limits would apply to children ages 6 to 12.

DSS officials initially wanted tighter limits but compromised on the numbers after input from its advisory panel. It should be noted that a room could merely be partitioned or even divided by furniture in order to comply with the new group-size rules.

State regulations often raise the cost of doing business for day-care centers. Onerous regulations could result in higher rates at day-care centers or force some centers out of business. But the state's proposed rules are reasonable and measured compared to regulations in most other states. Parents, however, will continue to have the primary responsibility of judging the quality of the day-care centers they choose for their children.