Higher cost for day cares?

Discussion

June 19, 2007

New bill could mean added expenses for businesses

By Janet Jacobs The Corsicana Daily Sun Tue Jun 19, 2007, 08:59 AM CDT

A new state law that requires child care workers to undergo fingerprint background checks has daycare operators worried about who will foot the bill. The law, originally called Senate Bill 21, did not pass as a stand-alone law, but was attached to another bill as an amendment and passed on the coattails of Senate Bill 758.

Many day care workers and administrators said they haven’t even heard about the new requirement, which becomes official Sept. 1.

“We’re not sure what we’ll have to do,” said Debbie Taylor, owner of the Candy Cane Corner Child Care Center in Corsicana.

The cost for each background check would be nearly $50, which includes the cost to run it through the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the National Crime Information Center (FBI), and then the electronic fingerprint imaging company.

The $50 may not include the cost of actually being fingerprinted by a law enforcement officer. In Navarro County, the sheriff’s office will take fingerprints for an additional charge of $10.

The new costs would just be one more expense in an industry already pinched by rising costs, Taylor said.

“It’s already costing us a fortune to pay for the training, the CPR training and first aid training. I don’t know how we’ll do that,” she said.

Currently, daycare centers do a criminal background check through the DPS that costs $2 per person. The new checks would be more extensive, and the fingerprints would make it harder to fool, according to the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville.

“Parents should never have to worry whether their child is safe from predators when they drop off their child at day care,” Nelson said.

The change followed the heatstroke death of 4-year-old Jacob Fox while he was on a day care field trip in the Dallas area. The day care center’s owner, Blynithia Washington, was licensed by the state to run the center despite having a criminal record that included the stabbing of a woman.

Paying $50 for each applicant, though, is the challenge. Daycare workers make an average of $7.55 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

If it does cost $50, or even $60, the cost would have to be passed along to the parents, said Debbie Hawk, director of the Early Childhood Academy at the Collins Catholic School.

“We’re a non-profit,” she explained. “I’d be forced to pass that on somehow.”

The state also requires would-be school teachers to go through a national criminal background check, complete with electronic fingerprinting, at a cost of $57, according to DeEtta Culbertson, spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency.

As of Aug. 31, 2006, the state had records of 9,091 child care centers, and had conducted 142,000 background checks in 2006, said Patrick Crimmins, spokesman for the Department of Family and Protective Services.

“This includes new employees, volunteers, existing staff and others who are regularly and frequently present while children are in their care,” Crimmins stated.

Twenty-nine states require child care workers to undergo fingerprint background checks, according to the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Janet Jacobs may be contacted via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com

Checks, please

A new bill passed by the legislature this past May will require fingerprint background checks for all day care workers. The cost is $48.95 — $15 for the fingerprint check through DPS, $24.95 for a fingerprint check through the FBI, and $9.95 for a processing fee through DPS's vendor for electronic fingerprint imaging. The new rules go into effect Sept. 1.

— Source: Department of Family and Protective Services

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