A new state law will see more and more home-based childcare centers receive annual inspections from the Iowa Department of Human Services over the next five years. D.H.S. spokesman Roger Munns says currently checks are hit and miss for some 5,500 home-based facilities with 6 or more kids, and 7,000 daycares that serve five or fewer kids are not regulated at all.
Munns says there has been a lot of resistance to licensing home day cares. "People have said I was in an unregulated child care when I was brought up and it worked for me so what’s the fuss," Munns says.
But Munns says a new state law will require them to gradually increase annual inspections until all home day cares are inspected yearly by 2013. That would dramatically increase the number of checks on daycare facilities.
Munns says,"The Department of Human Services attempts to visit 20% of these registered homes a year, but for all practical purposes..in most parts of the state it’s a complaint-driven system."
Another part of the law requires licensed centers to pay a new fee and cover the cost of fingerprinting new employees.