Home daycares in Ffx County may soon be forced to downsize

[Anonymous]

I apologize in advance if this has been discussed before, but it was new to me. When I dropped my son off today, our beloved home daycare provider told me that there is currently a proposal with Fairfax County that may force home daycares to care for a maximum of 7 children (currently the limit is set at 12). The issue is apparently the discrepancy between what the state allows (12) vs. what the county allows (7). The alternative currently under discussion will allow providers to keep the limit at 12 children, but force them to go through a complex and costly county review. Our provider told us the next voting round is scheduled in May.

Have you heard about this?

Here is the Washington Post article http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-01-15/local/36385787_1_day-cares-providers-shortage-of-child-care

Our provider thinks it may have something do with lobbying efforts of corporate daycare providers who have seen their business shrink as the home daycares flourished.

[Anonymous]

This is new to me. I would probably not have picked a home daycare unless there were one or two children the same age as mine so this law will hurt them. When you are caring for ages 0-3, you need a higher number of children to make that work. With the right amount of space and providers, 12 is fine. Is there a space issue with having 12 in a home daycare? What Fairfax County needs to spend more time on is regulating the space that is required per child. It's abysmal especially in the daycare centers. Just check out what the requirements are and then compare it to the Fairfax County employee childcare program which is about 4 times the mandated space per child required.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is new to me. I would probably not have picked a home daycare unless there were one or two children the same age as mine so this law will hurt them. When you are caring for ages 0-3, you need a higher number of children to make that work. With the right amount of space and providers, 12 is fine. Is there a space issue with having 12 in a home daycare? What Fairfax County needs to spend more time on is regulating the space that is required per child. It's abysmal especially in the daycare centers. Just check out what the requirements are and then compare it to the Fairfax County employee childcare program which is about 4 times the mandated space per child required.

Of course this law will hurt them! Imagine building a business model on receiving 12 tuition checks and suddenly being forced to make do with 7. Whose business can possibly withstand losing 40% of revenue?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is new to me. I would probably not have picked a home daycare unless there were one or two children the same age as mine so this law will hurt them. When you are caring for ages 0-3, you need a higher number of children to make that work. With the right amount of space and providers, 12 is fine. Is there a space issue with having 12 in a home daycare? What Fairfax County needs to spend more time on is regulating the space that is required per child. It's abysmal especially in the daycare centers. Just check out what the requirements are and then compare it to the Fairfax County employee childcare program which is about 4 times the mandated space per child required.

Of course this law will hurt them! Imagine building a business model on receiving 12 tuition checks and suddenly being forced to make do with 7. Whose business can possibly withstand losing 40% of revenue?

This wont affect me as a provider, because I dont take more than 5. And rarely keep that many as I like keeping my numbers low.

A provider permitted with the county can always go for a state license to keep the 12 children they have. Unless something else has changed I havent heard yet, as I was sick the last meetings they had for these issues letting us know what is changing.

There are other changes as well that will affect providers as well so make sure you ask your providers about the changes they will be going through.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is new to me. I would probably not have picked a home daycare unless there were one or two children the same age as mine so this law will hurt them. When you are caring for ages 0-3, you need a higher number of children to make that work. With the right amount of space and providers, 12 is fine. Is there a space issue with having 12 in a home daycare? What Fairfax County needs to spend more time on is regulating the space that is required per child. It's abysmal especially in the daycare centers. Just check out what the requirements are and then compare it to the Fairfax County employee childcare program which is about 4 times the mandated space per child required.

Of course this law will hurt them! Imagine building a business model on receiving 12 tuition checks and suddenly being forced to make do with 7. Whose business can possibly withstand losing 40% of revenue?

This wont affect me as a provider, because I dont take more than 5. And rarely keep that many as I like keeping my numbers low.

A provider permitted with the county can always go for a state license to keep the 12 children they have. Unless something else has changed I havent heard yet, as I was sick the last meetings they had for these issues letting us know what is changing.

There are other changes as well that will affect providers as well so make sure you ask your providers about the changes they will be going through.

You may not take more than 5, but many providers do and are in fact licensed by the state to care for up to 12 kids. The issue isn't that you need a state license to care for 12 kids. The issue is that currently, the county zoning allows for a maximum of SEVEN kids. To care for more than that, you need a special permit from the county, which is complex and expensive. The current county permitting (by the zoning) is for a max of 7 kids.

[Anonymous]

So all of these daycares haven't been in conformance for years? So glad my taxpayer dollars go to licensing that don't follow the zoning code. To me the County is at fault if they've been allowing these daycares despite zoning rules. They should just change their zoning rules to match the state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is new to me. I would probably not have picked a home daycare unless there were one or two children the same age as mine so this law will hurt them. When you are caring for ages 0-3, you need a higher number of children to make that work. With the right amount of space and providers, 12 is fine. Is there a space issue with having 12 in a home daycare? What Fairfax County needs to spend more time on is regulating the space that is required per child. It's abysmal especially in the daycare centers. Just check out what the requirements are and then compare it to the Fairfax County employee childcare program which is about 4 times the mandated space per child required.

Of course this law will hurt them! Imagine building a business model on receiving 12 tuition checks and suddenly being forced to make do with 7. Whose business can possibly withstand losing 40% of revenue?

This wont affect me as a provider, because I dont take more than 5. And rarely keep that many as I like keeping my numbers low.

A provider permitted with the county can always go for a state license to keep the 12 children they have. Unless something else has changed I havent heard yet, as I was sick the last meetings they had for these issues letting us know what is changing.

There are other changes as well that will affect providers as well so make sure you ask your providers about the changes they will be going through.

You may not take more than 5, but many providers do and are in fact licensed by the state to care for up to 12 kids. The issue isn't that you need a state license to care for 12 kids. The issue is that currently, the county zoning allows for a maximum of SEVEN kids. To care for more than that, you need a special permit from the county, which is complex and expensive. The current county permitting (by the zoning) is for a max of 7 kids.

Someone charging even minimum of $250 a week for 12 kids can surely afford to pay and go through the motions of getting that special permit. If they want to keep their business going the way it currently is without having to let families go. I only know the guidelines as a permitted provider, because that is all that concerns me. FYI: even if one is licensed to care for 12 kids, did you know that if the provider is in a townhouse the actual number they are allowed is less than that 12? I didnt know that. Thankful I am in a single family home.

[Anonymous]

According to my daycare provider, the extra permit they will be required to get is not very expensive (around $1000, I think). So it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that if you want to have a lot more kids, you have to be specially licensed for that.

[Anonymous]

My daycare provider just told me another agency is changing regulations that would only allow for 5 kids. I have never heard of the agency but she said Sunny? I really dont know if that's the correct spelling or not. I have tried to find info online but haven't been able to locate anything. If anyone knows about it please lmk. We just started daycare last month so I'm very new to all this stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:According to my daycare provider, the extra permit they will be required to get is not very expensive (around $1000, I think). So it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that if you want to have a lot more kids, you have to be specially licensed for that.

I think if it was just a matter of payment, people wouldn't be as incensed. It's the fact that no one quite understands the process of getting a permit, and that with all that said, there is no guarantee that county will approve the application (because it's the special exception, not the regular process). As the article says, it only takes one neighbor complaint about extra traffic to get the application denied. Only a handful of providers have secured this exception so far. Remember, it's not the permit to have more kids, it's the permit to care for 12 kids most of them already have.

[Anonymous]

as a licensed daycare provider(for 12)it is not the money I will spend on special permit that worries me it is the uncertainty whether it will be approved like someone mentioned above if one neighbor goes and complains.My zipcode has only 5 home daycares and it will affect the families tremendously with only 1 decent daycare center around.County permit allows 5 because people can't have 12 in townhomes or smaller houses.So my point is if there is space according to state or county requirements per child they should allow it.Why go for special permit,hearings etc.This has been going for years and we have been in compliance wonder what has changed now.

[Anonymous]

If you can care for 12 children, how many adults are required?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you can care for 12 children, how many adults are required?

I'm not sure what exactly is required but we have 3 adults in my son's daycare.

[Anonymous]

to answer your question about how many adults for 12 children,I have 3 plus myself so it is 4.