Day cares: A balancing act of safety and ease

Debbie Eposito , at right, speaks with Satwik Dasaram of Stamford and his wife Prathyusha Kottireddy about childcare services during the 11th Annual 2019 Stamford Early Childhood Fair on Saturday, Feb. 2, 2019 in Stamford, Connecticut. Eposito, a family child care provider who is unable to hire help due to changes in Connecticut Child Care legislation and delays in state background and fingerprinting checks, runs Beginner Steps daycare out of her home in Stamford.

STAMFORD — Debbie Esposito’s home was made to be a day care.

Not only did she renovate most of her Hirsch Road home to serve as the site of Beginner Steps day care, but there are signs all over the place the building is meant to accommodate little ones.

Walking into her house, Esposito asks people remove their shoes to prevent them from tracking dirt onto the floor kids roam. There’s a wraparound porch in the backyard with a playhouse on it underneath a tarp. Kids can go outside and play on the porch when it snows and then go in the playhouse for warm milk and cocoa.

Esposito opened her day care in 2008 after working in the corporate business world.

“I look at it from a teaching perspective and as a mom,” said Esposito, while sitting at her kitchen table. The corners of her kitchen table are covered to prevent the sharp edges from hurting little heads and a booster seat is on the bench beside the table.

Esposito is licensed to run a family child care home, which under Connecticut state law is defined as a private family home where a provider can care for up to six children with only two under the age of two.

With the assistance of staff, the number of children allowed under the age of two increases.

Esposito said her business attracts mostly children under age two, likely due to a lack of availability for day care slots for babies. However, when Esposito’s assistant suddenly quit, she had no choice but to lose business, letting most of her families go and issuing refunds because she legally could no longer watch more than two babies.

“There was nothing else I could do,” she said.

But to hire more help, they must be approved by the state with fingerprint-based background check. And fingerprinting can take awhile. Esposito said she submitted prints in April that didn’t come back until November. By then, the employee had sought work elsewhere.

The timing of fingerprint clearance is one of several complications facing those who run family child care homes.

“It’s a balance for the state of Connecticut trying to make sure the child is safe,” said Eva Bermudez Zimmerman, the child care director for CSEA SEIU Local 2001. “They’re trying to make sure the regulations are stringent, but then that causes blowback for providers who can’t seem to keep businesses afloat.”

The path to hiring help for a family child care home is complicated. While owners can hire employees who are preapproved by the state, Bermudez Zimmerman said the list provided isn’t updated. A new employee must go through a fingerprint background check that must be cleared before they can start working.

According to the state Office of Early Childhood, people applying to work at group child care homes and centers have to submit to the same background checks but don’t have to wait until they come back before they start working.

Debra Johnson, director of the OEC’s Division of Licensing, said this is because at group child care homes (which allow seven to 12 children) and child care centers (which have no limits on the number of children allowed), there are more people on site to account for employees who may have pending background checks. The idea is, even if a person waiting for their background check to clear is with the children, there’s also someone there who has already been approved.

That guarantee is not the same with family child care homes as there is only only one licensed director to oversee the staff awaiting approval.

Another time sink is that in family child care home settings, employees are also issued licenses, whereas individual employees at group child care homes and child care centers do not receive licenses.

“It’s a very different setting than a family child care home,” Johnson said. “The turnover is also great in those settings. This avoids a program having to dismiss children if staff leave.”

Johnson said they do receive complaints about the amount of time it takes for fingerprints.

“We have received complaints about the fingerprinting process and the time frame and we have the same complaint,” said Michael Curley, OEC’s legal director. “We want it to be much faster too. The other issue we hear complaints about is fingerprints are submitted and get rejected. We’re trying to get everything we can to upgrade systems.”

But help may be in the future.

According to state Rep. Caroline Simmons, D-144, the issue has to do with a backlog with the state police who analyze the fingerprints. Simmons has been talking with local family home center providers and working on the state level to speed up the process.

Simmons, who represents Stamford, said she agrees child care centers and family home centers should have the same requirements.

“It’s always a difficult balance between wanting to make sure we support home day cares and making sure they have the resources and training they need and making sure safety and health are the top priority, first and foremost, in terms of child care overall,” Simmons said.

The OEC said their licensing requirements are based on national safety standards. This year, however, they are working on draft changes to their regulations, using surveys and a public comment period to get input from providers.

“We do look at licensing as minimum standards to assure health and safety,” Johnson said. “A big part of when we’re looking at our regulations is getting input from all interested stakeholders, especially providers. … We’re being thoughtful about added support we can provide to child care providers.”

erin.kayata@stamfordadvocate.com; (203) 964-2265; @erin_kayata