First in a two-part series looking at “Nathan’s Law,” which puts new limits on both licensed and unlicensed daycare facilities in the name of child safety and the “unintended consequences” it’s having on both local providers and families.
When state legislators passed a bill during the 2019 legislative session designed to further regulate the number of children allowed in unlicensed child care centers, they had the best of intentions.
“Nathan’s Law,” named after an infant who died in a 2007 incident in an unlicensed and illegal child care facility in Jefferson County, was intended to improve the safety of children in child care facilities and prevent any future injuries or deaths.
Signed into law by Gov. Mike Parson in July, Nathan’s Law was passed as an amendment to HB 397, a broad-based bill designed to protect children.
Nathan’s Law, which went into effect on Aug. 28, changed the rules for in-home daycare, limiting the number of children that could be cared for.
According to many licensed child care providers, those regulations are making it more difficult for parents to find quality child care, especially in rural areas, by forcing licensed caregivers who are already regulated and monitored to raise their rates, turn away families, or in at least one case in Perry County, close their doors for good.
— Alicia Unverferth
These problems can add up, leaving families with little or no recourse, and may even have a detrimental effect on child care. From their point of view, it often seems like a law of “unintended consequences,” a phrase often repeated among those affected by the new regulations.
“I don’t think they looked at the whole picture of how this vote affected caregivers and families as well,” said Cheryl Layton, owner of Country Kids Daycare in rural Perryville. “We have had parents waiting for spots for months and years, some thinking they were going to have child care when school started, only to have nothing and nowhere else to go except unlicensed homes.”
The problem centers on language limiting the number of children allowed in child care facilities. Before Nathan’s Law was passed, in-home, unlicensed day cares were allowed to serve up to four children, in addition to an unlimited number of related children.
Now, these providers are limited to six, exempting only children living “in the caregiver’s home who are eligible for enrollment in a public kindergarten, elementary, or high school” from being counted toward the six-child limit. Caretakers are also allowed to care for no more than three children younger than 2 years old.
The language is being applied to both licensed and unlicensed providers, prompting some providers to ask a tough question: Why should smaller child care providers, who are typically licensed for 10 children, continue to carry a license, when, in some cases, the difference in the number of children served is negligible?
“Many of us voiced the common concern that this new law actually is doing the exact opposite of what it is intended to do,” said Alicia Unverferth, owner of Little Explorers Learning Center in Perryville, who has been spearheading a group of local providers seeking to enact changes in the new regulations. “We fear many upcoming providers will choose the unlicensed option instead of becoming a licensed provider, thus putting children into unregulated facilities.”
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| Alicia Unverferth (center), owner of Little Explorers Learning Center in Perryville, employs three staff members, Alysha Ochs (left), Christy Ehlers (right) and Amber Ford (not pictured). “Many of us voiced the common concern that this new law actually is doing the exact opposite of what it is intended to do,” Unverferth said. (Republic-Monitor/Robert Cox) |
Child care in Missouri is regulated by Department of Health and Senior Services, which maintains a log through its Section for Child Care Regulation of child deaths that have occurred in child care programs.
From September 2009 through the present, the SCCR has records of 49 child deaths that occurred in child care settings. Of those, 15 occurred in licensed child care settings and 34 occurred in unlicensed child care.
The deaths in unlicensed care include unlicensed legal; unlicensed illegal; exempt from licensure (a preschool operated by a school); and license-exempt child care.
Those numbers, said DHSS spokeman Lisa Cox, represent only the deaths the department is aware of, stating that “there is no requirement that child deaths be reported to the Section for Child Care Regulation.”
According to research done by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for a 2011 series entitled “Deadly Day Cares,” 56 children died at daycare facilities in Missouri between 2007 and July 2011. Fifty of those deaths occurred at unlicensed day cares, where providers were often responsible for too many children and were not properly trained or prepared to care for infants.
While Nathan’s Law seeks to remedy that situation, in reality, it’s making things difficult for licensed caregivers, who must undergo a series of inspections and hours of training before receiving a license from the state, a license that must be renewed every two years.
— Cheryl Layton
Jeanne Mattingly of Perryville used to be one of them. Mattingly ran a licensed, in-home daycare for more than 20 years, taking care of up to 10 children, the limit of her license. When the new regulations went into effect on Aug. 28, she was faced with a dilemma.
Over the years, her family had grown. With six grandchildren of various ages, she sometimes found herself caring for two or more of them for at least part of the day in addition to her paid charges. Previously, this wasn’t an issue, as related children weren’t figured into the equation. After Nathan’s Law, which restricted the related children exception to those who live in the caregiver’s home, it was no longer cost-effective to keep her business open.
“I’m taking care of my family first,” Mattingly said.
The new regulations also carry some teeth.
Caregivers, licensed or not, face stiffer penalties for ignoring the limit. Previously, those found in violation faced a $200 fine. Under Nathan’s Law, violators could be found guilty of a Class C misdemeanor and subject to a maximum fine of $750. Subsequent offenses carry a $2,000-per-day fine.
The changes were outlined in a message sent to all licensed providers in early August, leaving licensed providers scrambling to adjust with the first day of school looming on the horizon.
“That letter was like a bomb dropped,” Layton said. “We had 26 days.”
In Layton’s case, like Mattingly’s, the new regulations had an immediate effect.
“This affected my business,” Layton said. “I lost two children going back to school, and I can’t replace them. That’s a drop of $200 a week. That hurt. Bills are still the same.”
Cox also shared that in Missouri, the SCCR regulates licensed and license-exempt child care programs that have the capacity to serve 173,035 children.
Missouri statutes exempt several types of child care, including those who are caring for six or fewer children, and/or three or fewer children under two years of age; school systems that operate child care programs; businesses that operate a child care program as a convenience to its customers or employees for no more than four hours per day (these are typically gyms that operate a child care program while parents are working out on site); and neighborhood youth development programs which includes several Boys & Girls Club programs.
For many rural communities, in-home daycare providers are often the only option.
In Perry County, there are 18 licensed child care providers. Of those, eight are either licensed as a “Family Home” (10 children) like Layton’s Country Kids, or a “Group Home” (20 children), like Unverferth’s Little Explorers. All told, there are only seats for 596 children in licensed daycare in the county, a number approximately equal to the combined enrollment of kindergarten through third grade at Perry County School District No. 32.
That shortage of seats is likely to get worse, especially involving infants and toddlers, say child care providers. Under Nathan’s Law, in-home daycares are limited to three children under the age of 2.
— Cheryl Layton
“Babies are the issue,” Layton said. “I have a notebook full of people wanting care. Their kids will be in school before I can get them in. It’s hard to get a 2-year-old because they are usually placed and happy where they are. When you get an infant, they are usually here to stay till kindergarten.”
By forcing providers to add their own children and other relatives into the allowed limit, those spots become even harder to find and providers have to find ways to make up for lost revenue.
“Others have raised their rates,” Layton said. “I have asked my relatives to pay more — which I really hated to do — but I’m trying not to raise rates right now. I’m trying to make every adjustment I can first. But I will probably have to in January.”
In the meantime, all that’s left to do is follow the law.
“The goal of Nathan’s Law was to improve the overall safety of children in child care throughout the state, which we agree is very important, and is our top priority,” Unverferth said. “However, we feel there are some unintended consequences of this law that are hurting working families and small businesses. This law puts even more restraints on already limited numbers of available child care positions in Perry County, making it even more challenging for working families to find safe and affordable care for their children.”
Unverferth, who said that the new regulations will force her to delay the start date of multiple children and will force an increase in daily tuition rates at Little Explorers, hopes that by working with state legislators like Rep. Rick Francis (R-Perryville) and Rep. Dale Wright (R-Farmington), her coalition of child care providers will be able to lessen the burden placed on families and licensed providers by adjusting the regulated numbers in the same way as it did for unlicensed providers.
“We are not asking them to change the law, we are just encouraging them to look at the impact it is having on licensed facilities that are already heavily regulated through multiple inspections each year,” Unverferth said. “These inspections ensure we are following the state guidelines and the children in our facilities are receiving safe and adequate care.”
Achieving that standard of care is one thing on which all parties can agree.
“No child should die in care of a provider,” Layton said.
UP NEXT: A look at how Nathan’s Law came to be, what some legislators are trying to do to fix their “mistake,” and why making those changes could prove difficult.
