November 13, 2002
RE: S2005 – Permits up to 10 children to
be cared for by a registered family day care provider
The
Honorable Shirley Turner
1440
Pennington Rd.
Trenton,
NJ 08618
Dear Senator Turner,
On
behalf of family child care providers, the New Jersey Family Child Care
Providers’ Association wishes to thank you for your recognition of Family Child
Care as a vital child care choice for parents.
We wholly appreciate your support of our profession and your confidence
in our ability to expand care from 5 children to 10 as outlined in Senate bill
2005.
Though
many members of the NJFCCPA support the idea of expanding care from five to
ten, the NJFCCPA is unable to support the bill as it is currently written. We believe that the establishment of homes
to care for up to 10 children should not be included in the current family day
care law, but be established as a separate, distinctive category of child care
subject to mandatory registration. We also advocate that this category be
governed by its’ own manual of requirements.
The
NJFCCPA recommends the following items to be included in the bill:
·
A separate
distinctive category of care for providers caring for 6 to 10 children.
·
This
category of child care be subject to mandatory registration.
·
Requirement
that a second caregiver be present at all times.
It
is recommended that other items of concern be addressed in the manual of
requirements that would govern this category of care and that it be developed
in collaboration with leading family child care advocates and the bureau of
licensing. These areas of concern would
include items such as, additional training hours, including CPR & First
Aid, an increase in the frequency of monitoring of these homes, and
clarification of the ages and ratios of children that can be served.
The
members of the board of the New Jersey Family Child Care Providers' Association
believe we can be instrumental to your office in revising this bill and would
like to meet with you at your earliest convenience to share our ideas. The NJFCCPA was founded in September 1988 to
enhance the quality of child care though the education and empowerment of
Family Child Care Providers. Since its’ inception, the NJFCCPA has worked
tirelessly to foster a professional attitude among family child care providers,
while advocating for providers and the families they serve. In fact, the
NJFCCPA was instrumental in getting the zoning bill, S926 enacted. No other organization knows the profession
of Family Child Care or the providers better than we do. In this capacity, we look forward to meeting
with you to discuss how we can collaborate to expand care options while
protecting those currently in place.
Very Truly
Yours,
Justine Foley
President
New Jersey Family Child Care Providers'
Association
jmf