Editorial: Reassessing child care standards

Thursday, May 15, 2003 | 9:21 a.m.

It doesn't take a child development expert to know what common sense tells us: If children aren't nurtured and cared for in their preschool years, then they're more likely to have problems later, including academically. Today's installment in the Sun's seven-part series, "Children Left Behind," not only notes that Nevada is near the bottom nationwide in the percentage of children in preschool, it also shows that Nevada hasn't done as much as most other states to make sure that children are safe at day care centers.

The child-to-staff ratios at day care centers are weak compared to other states. For instance, Nevada is just one of six states that permits a ratio as high as 8-to-1 for children between 18 to 27 months old. The more children that a staff member has to oversee, the less time there is for learning, and it also increases the likelihood that a worker can get distracted, potentially endangering children's safety. Child advocates have called on government to set better child-to-staff ratios. But operators of day care centers say if they have to hire more employees, they will have to charge higher tuition. They say some parents would withdraw their children because it would become too expensive, forcing the parents to use unlicensed care givers instead.

Clark County and the city of Las Vegas are looking at improving the child-to-staff ratios for day care centers. The local governments should weigh heavily the experience of other cities and states, which have strengthened their child-to-staff ratios, to see if tuitions were hiked in response or if the centers absorbed the costs. If an analysis finds that improved child-to-staff ratios haven't caused tuitions to increase so much that they create hardships, then local governments here should require tougher standards, too.

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