House Bill 243 passes through Idaho House of Representatives

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — Lawmakers say there is a child care crisis in Idaho, and while proposing solutions, not everyone agrees.

House Bill 243, sponsored by Rep. Barbara Ehardt, aims to help with the state’s child care crisis. The bill states that the law leaves the “primary responsibility for evaluation and selection of day care services with parents.”

“In our state, we are always hearing, ‘We have a day care problem,’ and I would agree,” Ehardt said.

Ehardt wants to loosen regulations surrounding day care centers.

“We want to take us back to the days where more kids were being watched by businesses that are not what you think of; just homes,” Ehardt said.

Cynthia Biberos, owner of Jazzy’s Early Learning Center, disagreed and said these regulations are needed. Some of the rules concern ratios of adults to children in day care.

“Ratios are important because our teachers need to be able to adequately meet the needs of the children,” Biberos said. “If we’re looking at just that, I shouldn’t even say just because it’s a very important health and safety standard for our children to meet the baseline of their care.”

Biberos stressed that ratio is essential for children’s basic needs, such as being changed appropriately, napping routines and their safety interacting in the classroom.

The ratio is also essential for brain development. Biberos said that one-on-one time helps with that.

“The mental and the academic needs and the physical needs and everything. A teacher, child, that teacher being able to get down on the floor, do tummy time with an infant, being able to rotate in materials and have the child listen and respond, and turn to them, and plan intentional interactions to meet that individual child’s needs.”

House Bill 243 affects providers and parents who take their children to day care during the week. Talisha Lowry-Jones, a parent, talked about her worries regarding the changes.

“A child is not going to be adequately cared for, and that’s what they’re there for,” Lowry-Jones said. “They are there for longer in the day than they are at home.”

Lowry-Jones thinks the bill will not help her children or the teachers.

“Creating this stress with the teachers and the children themselves, that’s not going to be good for their development.”

Biberos said she fears that not all children will get the same fair opportunity as others with the bill.

“All children need to have available quality care, and that comes with the state setting, base standards, base regulations that need to be met,” Biberos said.

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