Local nonprofit proposes standard requirements for child care workers

Frank Sietzen, The Examiner

WASHINGTON – A local association is proposing nationwide adoption of community-based training requirements for all childcare workers.

Currently, there are nearly 12 million children under age 5 cared for every week in childcare facilities in the U.S. Many are small family-run organizations operating out of the home

“It is astonishing that in America today adults can begin working in child care with no previous training or experience in early childhood education,” said Linda Smith, executive director of the Arlington-based National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies.

NACCRRA’s proposal, released last week, would require a minimum of pre-service training for all paid providers caring for unrelated children on a regular basis. The agencies that her group represents would actually do the training, once a program has been approved and vetted by the individual states.

Smith told The Examiner that many of the agencies that make up her group had been calling for a more formal series of training guidelines and a national standard for childcare workers.

“Most states only require 12 hours of training a year, and that can be anything that people want, even taking the same workshops over and over again,” Smith said. “Our research showed that the quality of (child) care is not improving, and that agencies have been urging formal training programs as a way to improve the quality of care.”

“This effort should begin at the state and federal level by creating training requirements for all child care providers,” Smith explained. The plan also calls for a national trainer credential to be established.

Many referral agencies have already started their own training programs.

“We make individual assessments of our care givers, starting with home evaluations and site visits,” said Wynne Busman, associate director of the Infant and Family Toddler Day Care in Fairfax, a local referral agency.

Training of staff workers is a high priority for her group, Busman said, and they often send some of the workers at facilities to courses at Northern Virginia Community College. Her group also tutors in English, since many providers speak English as a second language and has established a mentoring program — matching newer workers with more experienced personnel.

Busman welcomes the NACCRRA initiative. “There should be a program like this everywhere in the country, many of our parents have told us. I really think we can do this in the interest of our children.”