The PSO/Illinois’ Child Care Association shares the day-care licensing concerns of the Day Care Action Council of Illinois expressed in Tribune staff writer Cornelia Grumman’s report (Metro, June 23).
Although the Department of Children and Family Services has been struggling to obtain the necessary appropriations to hire more licensing staff and upgrade its qualifications, the system is fraught with problems that have no easy solution.
It appears that DCFS’ priority activity is protecting the state’s 50,000 abused and neglected children. But there is no other state agency that is more appropriate to do licensing of day-care centers than DCFS.
The Department of Public Health does not have the programmatic knowledge to do the job, and the Department of Human Services is too vast to give the necessary priority to licensing activities and what is best for children.
What most people don’t realize is a majority of day-care centers, such as those run by churches, public schools and park districts, are exempted from licensing requirements. If we are really to do our job making parents feel secure about where they leave their children, we need all day-care centers to be licensed using uniform standards. All children must be guaranteed a safe, secure, stimulating environment.
This may require an influx of state and federal money into the licensing system and the elevation of children and child care to a top priority among the candidates running for office in November.
