Help Use Make Nanny Shares Legal In Maryland

[Anonymous]

We need your help!
We need your help contacting our Maryland senators and delegates to fix the Maryland regulations that require nanny shares to be licensed (and criminalize unlicensed nanny shares)!
Instructions and suggestions below. Thanks in advance!

Lookup your state senator and delegates at this link (then click on “lookup” and enter your address)
Call the office of each of your state senator and delegates using the talking points below

Talking Points

Hi, my name is NAME, and I am calling as a constituent.
It is very important to me that you fix Code of Maryland Regulations COMAR 13A.15, which currently requires that you obtain a certificate of registration, (which is a form of license) before you operate a nanny share.
Licensure should be reserved for residential daycare businesses not nanny shares – in particular where surveys have found that the DMV area is the most expensive place in the U.S. for child care – even more expensive than NY and CA.
If you aren’t familiar, a nanny share is an arrangement where two or more families split the cost of one nanny who either cares for all of the children together or divides their time between the two families.
Unlike other states, Maryland requires homeowners to obtain a license from the Division of Early Childhood of the Maryland State Depart of Education even just to care for 2 children in a nanny share.
The District of Columbia, by contrast, sensibly exempts nanny shares from licensure requirements (“If you do not meet any of the exempted categories below, then you need to apply for a license. The exemptions are . . . Care provided for more than one child in a Nanny-Share, as defined in this chapter”).
Maryland goes so far as to make unlicensed nanny shares criminal (“An individual found to be operating a family child care home without a valid family child care registration is guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction is subject to a fine not exceeding: (1) $1,500 for the first violation; and (2) $2,500 for a second or subsequent violation.”)
Moreover, the licensure process is onerous and would impose on the homeowner and separately the nanny: 1) attending a 3 hour orientation; 2) completing a specific 24 hour initial training program, having a 90 hour preschool course, or having college courses in both child development and early childhood curriculum, 3) completing coursework in SIDS (if caring for children under two); 4) completing a 6-hour emergency preparedness course; 7) being certified in both first aid and CPR appropriate for the age groups to be cared for; 8) everyone in the home over 18 must be fingerprinted; 9) everyone in the home over 18 and any substitutes must submit documentation to check their records through child welfare; 10) Medicals for everyone in the home; 11) ) a fire inspection; and 12) an Office of Child Care inspection of the home.
I urge you to urgently fix Code of Maryland Regulations COMAR 13A.15 to exempt nanny shares from these onerous and unnecessary licensure requirements that make Maryland an outlier when childcare costs are already the highest in the country.
My phone number is PHONE. Please follow up with me to let me know how the DELEGATE/SENATOR intends to proceed with this issue.
Thanks for your time and attention today.

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Please post if you call to upvote this important issue. Feel free to share.

[Anonymous]

Why is it a bad thing to need a license and oversight?

[Anonymous]

Its probably someone with a lot of privilege who wants to make affordable private child care impossible for fellow families and desirable pay impossible for nannies...
This post would make much more sense if OP included his/her reasons for this campaign to better enlighten people about why this is an issue and why it is an urgent matter, right now in the middle of all this pandemic/post pandemic chaos that requires our attention

[Anonymous]

Its probably someone with a lot of privilege who wants to make affordable private child care impossible for fellow families and desirable pay impossible for nannies...

It seems like the opposite since the most privileged can afford nannies without sharing. Maryland imposing the requirements on the people who are trying to reduce the cost of child care by splitting it up seems out of place, if they aren’t running a daycare business out of their home.

[Anonymous]

Why is it a bad thing to need a license and oversight?

OP here: It’s not necessarily a bad thing if there is a need for oversight and it’s calibrated to the risk. But here I’m not convinced there is a need for the government to get involved where there are 2 private families paying for someone to take care of their kids. And even if we assume the government should be involved, Maryland hasn’t calibrated its involvement to the risk—the requirements imposed on nanny shares are the same for home daycare holding themselves out as businesses and caring for more children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Its probably someone with a lot of privilege who wants to make affordable private child care impossible for fellow families and desirable pay impossible for nannies...

It seems like the opposite since the most privileged can afford nannies without sharing. Maryland imposing the requirements on the people who are trying to reduce the cost of child care by splitting it up seems out of place, if they aren’t running a daycare business out of their home.

I see what you mean. Its not fair to torment those who aren't running a day care business. Nanny shares are two private families using one or both homes and usually it involves two children. This isn't a whole neighborhood of children under the care of one nanny. I just think there are so many other things to worry about than going after nanny shares. Usually people doing this aren't nannies or share parents who know how nanny shares actually work.

[Anonymous]

Nanny shares cheat nannies because you are cheap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Why is it a bad thing to need a license and oversight?

OP here: It’s not necessarily a bad thing if there is a need for oversight and it’s calibrated to the risk. But here I’m not convinced there is a need for the government to get involved where there are 2 private families paying for someone to take care of their kids. And even if we assume the government should be involved, Maryland hasn’t calibrated its involvement to the risk—the requirements imposed on nanny shares are the same for home daycare holding themselves out as businesses and caring for more children.

Many nanny shares involve three children from two or three families. Family daycares are licensed in the caregiver’s home, since the caregiver can’t control someone else’s home and whether they follow the licensing requirements. Regardless of whether the nanny share is legal or illegal, your homeowners insurance will not cover the nonresident child if they get hurt on your property.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Its probably someone with a lot of privilege who wants to make affordable private child care impossible for fellow families and desirable pay impossible for nannies...

It seems like the opposite since the most privileged can afford nannies without sharing. Maryland imposing the requirements on the people who are trying to reduce the cost of child care by splitting it up seems out of place, if they aren’t running a daycare business out of their home.

I see what you mean. Its not fair to torment those who aren't running a day care business. Nanny shares are two private families using one or both homes and usually it involves two children. This isn't a whole neighborhood of children under the care of one nanny. I just think there are so many other things to worry about than going after nanny shares. Usually people doing this aren't nannies or share parents who know how nanny shares actually work.

Last I knew, Maryland home daycares were limited to three children. Maryland requires oversight for any caregiver situation in which the caregiver is caring for children, unrelated to them, and for more than one family. They want to protect the children from neglect or abuse, and given their reasons and the limit on children from two or more families in a home childcare setting, you’re not going to get it overturned.

[Anonymous]

Right now nanny shares are totally ILLEGAL.