Regulators Want New Way of Counting Children in Day Care
By Joe Robertson for The Kansas City Star
Originally published in The Kansas City Star, July 7, 2002
Child-care regulators in Missouri want to count children in home day-care businesses as easily as the children count to 10 in their picture books.
But it's not so easy to undo a policy that state inspectors say is exploited by some day-care providers to overcrowd their homes and put children at risk.
Missouri generally allows one person to care for up to 10 children, with no more than two being under the age of 2. But children related to the provider—including cousins, nieces and nephews—aren't counted.
Kansas and most other states do count children who are relatives of home day-care providers.
The last time Missouri regulators proposed changing its rules, in 1997 and 1998, they received more than 900 pleas from providers and parents to leave the counting policy as it is.
This year the state is trying again. Only this time it plans a compromise proposal allowing only related children who live in the home to go uncounted.
"So many people were against the big fix," said Margaret Franklin, the bureau chief for child care safety and licensure. "Providers said it would affect their business too greatly. Parents said there wouldn't be enough space for their children."
If all the children were counted, Missouri investigators say, they could zero in more quickly on complaints of overcrowded homes such as those lodged against Phyllis Mullins, a Blue Springs woman who faces second-degree murder charges.
She goes to trial Monday in Jackson County Circuit Court.
Prosecutors say that 4-month-old Jacob McGinnis suffered a fatal head injury while he was one of 19 children in the care of Mullins on April 11, 2001. No one has been accused of inflicting the injury, but Mullins is charged with murder because prosecutors say she put the child at deadly risk.
Mullins, who is also charged with 19 counts of child endangerment, has pleaded not guilty.
In previous years, Mullins' home had been investigated numerous times on complaints that she had as many as 30 children in the home.
Department of Health records show that investigators on several occasions in the mid-1990s disputed claims by Mullins that some of the children were related to her.
Such reports are not uncommon, Franklin said. Nor is it uncommon for parents to help providers deceive inspectors.
"We've had cases where providers told parents, 'Tell them you're related to me,'" Franklin said. "Some are trying to make more money, but some push the limits because they're trying to help parents."
Many home day-care providers are struggling with low profit margins to help families that have trouble affording day care, said Martha Sanders, president of the Missouri Family Day Care Association in St. Louis.
Even the modified proposal to count some related children is bound to run into resistance, she said.
"I don't see any provider wanting to count related children into their 10," she said. "If a provider has four related children in her home and she has to count them, that's a big cut in income. That's her livelihood."
Beverly Watson, a home day-care provider in Kansas City, said that she understands the pressures on providers and parents but that children's well-being is at stake.
"We have to look to the safety of children," said Watson, who once led a now-defunct statewide association of providers. "Every little life is so precious."
Although the state needs to count all children, Watson said, people also need to address the day-care dynamic that has parents paying—and providers accepting—what amounts to baby-sitting wages.
"People have to realize we are small businesses," Watson said. "Parents have to realize they have to pay for a safe environment for their children. And we (providers) have to be sure we are earning our money.
"The No. 1 thing is the safety of the children. One person can only handle so many children. I don't care what their names are."
The proposed rules should be ready for public comment later this year, Franklin said.
