Linda A. White / en 91³Ô¹Ï researchers on unlicensed child care: Why do dog walkers need more permits than care providers? /news/u-t-researchers-unlicensed-child-care-why-do-dog-walkers-need-more-permits-care-providers <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">91³Ô¹Ï researchers on unlicensed child care: Why do dog walkers need more permits than care providers? </span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2018-03-01-conversation-main-resized.jpg?h=58088d8b&amp;itok=2g4cadJ2 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2018-03-01-conversation-main-resized.jpg?h=58088d8b&amp;itok=djo7K-0J 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2018-03-01-conversation-main-resized.jpg?h=58088d8b&amp;itok=9dt3JnqN 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2018-03-01-conversation-main-resized.jpg?h=58088d8b&amp;itok=2g4cadJ2" alt="Photo of kids playing"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>noreen.rasbach</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2018-03-01T16:25:47-05:00" title="Thursday, March 1, 2018 - 16:25" class="datetime">Thu, 03/01/2018 - 16:25</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Jean-Yves Duclos, Canada’s minister of families, children and social development, plays with children at a licensed YMCA daycare in downtown Toronto last March (photo by Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/adrienne-davidson" hreflang="en">Adrienne Davidson</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/linda-white" hreflang="en">Linda A. White</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/michal-perlman" hreflang="en">Michal Perlman</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/political-science" hreflang="en">Political Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/conversation" hreflang="en">The Conversation</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><h1><span></span></h1> <p>It may be tomorrow, it may be next week, or perhaps next month but it will happen –&nbsp;another child will die in an unlicensed child-care setting.</p> <p>Deaths in child care occur with <a href="https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/edcentral/unlicensedcare/">such alarming frequency</a> in the United States and Canada that they tend to resonate in the news for only a short period of time.</p> <p>A <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/000312240507000501">disproportionate number</a> of these deaths occur in unlicensed home child care, where a woman will care for a number of children in her home for a fee. Many countries, including the U.S., Canada and Ireland, allow for these businesses to operate legally but without any real government oversight.</p> <p>Because of this lack of oversight, we have no idea how many children are cared for or by how many unlicensed providers. <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1939-0025.1986.tb01541.x/abstract">We know virtually nothing</a> about <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0300443880330105">what is going on in these homes</a>.</p> <p>Our research at the 91³Ô¹Ï aims to understand why governments continue to let these businesses – which care for one of our most vulnerable populations – operate without any real oversight.</p> <p>In some parts of Canada, <a href="https://web.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/9072-Application_CommercialDogWalkerPermit.pdf">dog walkers</a> and <a href="https://www.interiorhealth.ca/YourEnvironment/FoodSafety/Documents/Mobile-Food-Vending-Carts-Apr-2012.pdf">hot dog vendors</a> require more permits than some child care providers.</p> <p>The safety of dogs, and of the food we eat from street vendors, is of course important. And so is the safety of our babies and children.</p> <h3>Prioritizing ‘parent choice’ over quality</h3> <p>Given the risks unlicensed care poses to children, it is puzzling that governments continue to allow these businesses to operate without any review or assessment of quality and safety.</p> <p>Research that we have just published in the <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/XQ5tsIzXRNNCIxKKtebY/full"><em>Journal of Risk Research</em></a> examines this question in the case of Ontario, which reviewed its legislation shortly after four young children (all under the age of two) <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/11/15/police_investigating_after_baby_dies_at_unregulated_markham_daycare.html">died</a> in <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/07/10/toddler_dies_at_unlicensed_vaughan_daycare_which_has_been_ordered_shut.html">unlicensed</a> <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/02/26/baby_found_dead_in_unlicensed_daycare.html">home</a> <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/11/23/daycare_crisis_ontario_inspections_reveal_numerous_violations.html">child care</a> within a seven month period in 2013 and 2014.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Daycare operator pleads guilty in hot-car death of 2-year-old Eva Ravikovich <a href="https://t.co/oRPUw2Kkkr">https://t.co/oRPUw2Kkkr</a> <a href="https://t.co/jJqWn724Fo">pic.twitter.com/jJqWn724Fo</a></p> — 680 NEWS Toronto (@680NEWS) <a href="https://twitter.com/680NEWS/status/849611358253588481?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <p>There was significant media attention and subsequent public outcry at these deaths.</p> <p>Yet when the government developed the new Ontario Child Care and Early Years Act (CCEYA), which came into effect on Aug. 31, 2015, it chose to allow a portion of the home child care sector to <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/child-care-rules-child-care-and-early-years-act">remain unlicensed</a>.</p> <p>Our research suggests a unique set of circumstances have resulted in a serious lack of oversight to ensure that our youngest citizens are in safe and nurturing environments.</p> <p>Despite the recent deaths in care, we found that the policy debate – in legislative and subcommittee discussions – prioritized concerns of “access†and “parent choice†over evaluation of “quality†and “risk.â€</p> <h3>A flawed logic</h3> <p>In worrying about access, policymakers and the attentive public expressed concern that if government increased oversight of unlicensed providers, some of them would fail to meet basic standards and would have to close.</p> <p>Access to child care is, of course, a major concern for many parents. But shying away from licensing because it might force unsafe or poorly functioning providers to close seems very misguided, to say the least.</p> <p>When it comes to “parent choice,†the logic runs something like this: Parents know what’s best for their families and should have the option to choose from a full range of options, including unlicensed care.</p> <p>This logic is flawed in a number of ways.</p> <p>For starters, it’s a very different logic to that which the government applies to pretty much all other services. Parents don’t have the choice (at least legally) to take their child to an unlicensed dentist or pediatrician, or out to dinner at a restaurant that hasn’t passed health and safety inspections.</p> <p>There are a couple of factors specific to this sector that need to be attended to. One is that – due to the high cost and frequent shortages of child care –&nbsp;<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13668800903314366?journalCode=ccwf20">parents across North America often have no choice at all</a> but to take whatever space they can find, regardless of quality concerns. <a href="http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/atkinson/UserFiles/File/Events/20170602_Summer_Institute_2017/SI_2017_Presentations/Understanding_usage_patterns_and_oversight_of_unlicenced_family_child_care_in_Canada.pdf">Lower income parents who work irregular hours are really in this bind and use unlicensed care more often</a>.</p> <p>The other is that <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00148-006-0087-6">“quality†in child care is very difficult to see and assess.</a></p> <h3>Parents misjudge quality</h3> <p>Experts agree that one of the most important aspects of care is the way that caregivers interact with children.</p> <p>But <a href="https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/8821474">identifying quality</a> in interactions is very difficult and generally requires training. Research studies show that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885200697900429">parents tend to assess the quality of their child care</a> much <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885200602001485">more favourably than do trained observers</a>.</p> <p>&lt;</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Ontario daycare operator gets six years in jail for toddler death <a href="https://t.co/UJ9KRlMY33">https://t.co/UJ9KRlMY33</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/hpcaparents?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HPCAParents</a> <a href="https://t.co/gVPG728p57">pic.twitter.com/gVPG728p57</a></p> — HuffPost Canada (@HuffPostCanada) <a href="https://twitter.com/HuffPostCanada/status/730157485072515076?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 10, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <p>In the U.S., a large-scale policy effort has been made to measure quality and make those quality ratings available to parents. While this does put parents in a better position to make informed choices, it does not replace the need for regulations and oversight to ensure that basic quality standards are met.</p> <p>Within the content of the hearings and debates we analyzed in Ontario, we did find some discussion of quality and risk.</p> <p>But these were less frequent than discussions of choice and access to begin with and they decreased as more time passed after the deaths of the four children.</p> <h3>Government oversight will reduce risks</h3> <p>The other part of the problem for policymakers is that it’s hard to quantify just how risky unlicensed care is.</p> <p>For example, in Ontario we <a href="https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/gyxg8j/when-your-baby-dies-in-a-home-daycare-whos-to-blame">don’t have accurate numbers</a> of child care deaths as <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/02/28/no_one_is_tracking_unregulated_daycare_deaths_in_ontario.html">coroners do not note the context when deaths in unlicensed child care occur</a>.</p> <p>What we do know is that while unlicensed care can be of good quality, licensed providers are generally rated as providing <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/570f/671c5c9f88e4d49af585006b6e421131c164.pdf">higher</a> <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ed388402">quality</a> care on <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00756691">standardized measures</a>.</p> <p>Licensed providers are also required to undergo criminal record checks, fire safety inspections and have up-to-date first aid certifications.</p> <p>Parents going the unlicensed child care route must do the research, inspect their potential or current care providers, and ask all the right questions. This places a big burden on parents and, arguably, it’s not a task that most parents are well-equipped to take on.</p> <p>Bringing unlicensed home child care providers out of the cold and into the light of government oversight will go a long way to addressing these gaps in parent information and reducing the risks for children in care.</p> <p>This policy action is doable. And it will only bring this sector up to the standard of any other sector that matters.</p> <p><em><span><strong>Linda A. White&nbsp;</strong>is a professor&nbsp;of political science and public policy at 91³Ô¹Ï. <strong>Adrienne Davidson </strong>is a doctoral candidate in political science at 91³Ô¹Ï. <strong>Michal Perlman</strong>&nbsp;is an&nbsp;associate professor of applied psychology and human development at 91³Ô¹Ï.</span></em></p> <p><em>This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-dog-walkers-need-more-permits-than-child-care-providers-91465">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><img alt="The Conversation" height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91465/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" width="1" loading="lazy"></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 01 Mar 2018 21:25:47 +0000 noreen.rasbach 130402 at