FRANKFORT — Child care centers will be allowed to have larger classes and relaxed rules on visits under changes to emergency rules instituted because of the pandemic.
Kentucky also will offer financial assistance to small, in-home centers through a $2,500 stipend to help them become licensed day care providers. Such centers of 12 or fewer children are certified but not subject to more stringent licensure rules.
Eric Friedlander, secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, outlined the changes Monday at Gov. Andy Beshear's news briefing on COVID-19.
The changes come as cases of COVID-19 are increasing in people 18 and under but also as child care centers are viewed as increasingly important in allowing parents to return to school and work, Friedlander said Monday.
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Friedlander said the state is willing to relax some rules because it has authority to regulate child care programs.
"The reason we feel comfortable in doing this is we actually inspect these places," he said. "We will ensure folks are wearing masks and complying with guidelines."
Still, he said, state officials will move forward with caution.
"We will have to be very, very careful," he said. "We’ll have to react if the situation changes."
Monday's changes are meant to ease the burden on the state's child care system, which is operating under new restrictions by order of the governor, following a temporary shutdown because of the pandemic.
They also are aimed at encouraging those considering opening a small center, possibly to help with remote learning for school-age children, to operate legally. People or employers offering that service for payment must meet state standards for child care, Friedlander said.
"If they are operating illegally, we are going to ask them to stop," he said.
Friedlander said the rules don't apply to small groups of parents who form "pods" to provide child care or instruction as long as they do not do it for pay or as a business.
The changes come as advocates and some lawmakers have called on the state to reconsider the restrictions, citing the need for child care throughout the commonwealth.
Child care advocates say changes will be welcome for providers striving to stay in business with strict limits on class sizes and increased costs for staffing, cleaning and items such as gloves and masks for workers.
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"These facilities are really struggling," said Bradley Stevenson, executive director of the Child Care Council of Kentucky, an advocacy and training group based in Lexington. "You can't make this work very long term."
Among the changes Beshear and Friedlander announced Monday:
- Centers may increase class sizes from 10 to 15. Prior to the pandemic, preschool classes of up to 24 were allowed.
- Tours of child care centers may resume. Such tours, suspended under Beshear's emergency orders, are essential to recruiting new families at centers seeking to rebuild enrollment after the shutdown during the pandemic, advocates say.
- Parents may visit children at the center again. Under the emergency rules, parents have had to drop children off at the door and were unable to visit during the day.
- Temporary child care programs allowed to operate during the pandemic for children of essential workers, such as medical staff and other workers, may continue to operate but will have 90 days to meet state licensure standards, including the emergency rules.
Cori Gadansky, executive director of Community Coordinated Child Care, a resource center and advocacy group in Louisville, said these changes could help centers suffering financial losses because of the pandemic.
While federal aid in the form of loans, grants and other payments helped at the outset, it's not clear whether more is likely with Congress seemingly at an impasse, she said. Overall, federal relief programs sent about $68 million in temporary financial aid to child care programs in Kentucky.
"We had some high hopes that maybe child care was going to be in the next relief package, but the next relief package seems like it may not happen real soon," Gadansky said.
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Meanwhile, advocates remain concerned about the shrinking number of child care providers.
The first decline began in 2013 largely because of a temporary cut in federal child care assistance for low-income, working parents. Under the program, child care payments went directly to centers, with parents responsible for a small co-pay.
Kentucky had about 4,400 licensed providers before the cut and now has about half that, Stevenson said. Though funds were eventually restored for the program, many centers never reopened, he said.
Now the pandemic has caused massive upheaval in Kentucky's child care system after all centers were forced to close temporarily in March when COVID-19 began to spread in Kentucky. They began reopening in June.
But one-third of the state's about 2,200 licensed or certified child care centers still haven't reopened. Advocates worry that many of them never will, leaving parents and thousands of Kentucky children without a safe place while parents can work.
Stevenson said his organization surveyed child care centers around the state recently and got responses from 642 providers. Almost half said they risk going out of business without some changes in the current rules.
Recently, state Senate Republicans, who control the chamber, complained that the rules were hurting child care, threatening to put some centers out of business.
"The problem is that a lot of these centers simply are not going to survive," Sen. Danny Carroll said at an Aug. 25 news conference during which Senate Republicans called on Beshear to relax the rules. "The centers simply cannot provide services much longer under these conditions."
Carroll is CEO of Easterseals West Kentucky, which provides services for children with disabilities, and he also operates a day care center.
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Carroll, other lawmakers and child advocates have also expressed concern about child abuse going undetected with schools and day care centers closed during the pandemic.
"Any expert will tell you that incidents of child abuse are not going away," Carroll said. "They are simply not being reported."
The Courier Journal reported in July that reports of suspected child abuse and neglect had declined significantly this year, which experts attribute to fewer children being in school or day care.
School personnel are among the most frequent reporters of suspected child abuse or neglect. This year, such reports fell by half from February through June, dropping to about 5,000 this year, compared with more than 10,000 for the same period last year.
Kentucky has led the nation in its rate of child abuse and neglect for the past two years.
Friedlander, secretary of the cabinet that oversees child protection, said his agency is well aware of the decline in reports of child abuse and neglect and shares concerns about their children's safety during the pandemic.
Stevenson said he understands concerns about children catching or transmitting COVID-19 but thinks that overall, they are better off in a structured, state-regulated child care setting.
"I would argue that child care is probably the best place for these kids to be," he said. "Child care providers have done an amazing job of working through this. They have found ways to keep this going."
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Reach Deborah Yetter at dyetter@courier-journal.com or 502-582-4228. Find her on Twitter at @d_yetter. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/subscribe.
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