Meeting Public Comments

Donna Kennebeck []

I have been an early childhood educator for nearly 40 years. During this time I have advocated and worked to support high quality childcare. Changing the ratios will not make this possible. It will also increase the burden on an already stressed workforce. We are not about "warehousing" children. This solution will be detrimental to children, families, and our childcare workforce. I oppose changing these ratios.

Lena Bruner []

I have been a pediatric nurse for the past 10 years. During that time I have been lucky enough to have OUTSTANDING childcare for my three children. I find it reckless and incredibly difficult to think that if this bill passes the childcare my children receive could be in jeopardy. While this bill aims to allow for more spots in daycares it greatly puts children at risk. Our centers are stretched thin with the resources and staffing they currently have and by placing more children in classrooms you create a higher risk of injury and lack of supervision. This increase in ratio will not only be burdensome for our children, but also on the incredible providers who have done everything the last few years to keep us (as healthcare professionals) working for the community. Without knowing our kids were safe and in a loving, nurturing and teaching environment, we would not be able to care for all of the people we do day in and day out. I cannot imagine the stress that this bill passing will have on our incredible providers. They have all filled in the gaps and holes the past few years and instead of being rewarded for the work they have done, you are punishing them by putting more on their plate. I strongly oppose this bill as a mother and a nurse, feeling the weight of high ratios and knowing the consequences these may cause. I encourage you to think of your own kids and how at the end of a long day with one, two, maybe even three kids you feel, because I know I sometimes feel defeated. Then think of our daycare providers who sit and read, color, teach, laugh and console a classroom of two year or three yearolds and how this bill will force them 2 more children to monitor, provide for, teach and show compassion for.

Erin Richardson []

I currently have young children in daycare and am extremely concerned about the negative effects the proposed childcare changes may have on their care and development. Increasing the number of children for one caregiver to supervise will lead to more accidents/trauma as well as caregiver fatigue, stress, and burnout. This will also decrease the time spent with each child and may slow developmental progress. If caregivers become too stressed, the potential for child abuse or leaving the job increases. There is already a shortage of caregivers and recruitment has been challenging. If you lose the staff, you will not attain your goal of getting more children into childcare. Please do not support a bill that may prevent children from being nurtured, supported, and engaged. Children are our future, and a strong educational foundation is critical. Instead, please propose an increase in funding to keep excellent caregivers and teachers working with our children. As a society, we need these special individuals to have the financial support and resources to do what they love. Our children need them to be successful in the future. Quality care and education during childhood will not exist if childcare providers are just given more work instead of the respect and financial support they deserve. Lowering standards and creating an unsafe environment as proposed in this bill will not come without a price. Please consider of the children of Iowa, our future leaders, and oppose increasing childcare center staff ratios.

Jodi Howard []

I am a mother to 2, almost 3, children who attend childcare regularly. I am grateful that they attend a center that values their safety, learning, and social skills. In this center the children come first. I work only parttime and can attest to the fact that full days with children can be very exhausting. I am not in support of this bill as I feel it will create greater burnout and reduce the level of care that several children receive. In addition, I am a pediatric physical therapist who has dealt first hand with the rehabilitation of children who have undergone harm from a daycare setting from an unfit provider. I believe in my heart of hearts that these providers did not start their day premeditating harm to these children, but rather were overwhelmed, burnt out, and reacted impulsively resulting in harm of children. Passing this bill will backfire and more providers will quit resulting in more burnout and less spots for children to attend safe centers.Please, do not put children at risk for the sake of short term convenience.

Ali Hand []

I am a mother to two young children who attend daycare and am a Registered Nurse in the Des Moines area. I care for our pediatric population and have firsthand been affected by being short staffed, much like our daycare providers. In my experience of caring for young children, although it may not be in a daycare setting but rather in a hospital setting, you cannot adequately care for each child when you are increasing the number of children that one adult is caring for. This does not allow for each child to have the attention and education that they not only need but deserve. Increasing the number of children that a daycare provider is expected to care for is only going to have a negative effect on our already stressed and maxed out daycare system. As a nurse who has been short staffed and had to take on more children to care for than is normally expected only leads to stress, exhaustion, and burn out. The same is going to happen to our daycare providers and you're going to see more providers leave the profession causing an increase to the shortage of providers, just as is happening in healthcare with the significant nursing shortage. The passing of this bill will not only affect our children now but long term as well. With our daycare providers being expected to care for more children, their ability to adequately teach our children is going to be affected. This age group that is affected by this bill is in major developmental milestones in their life that can affect their behavioral and cognitive development long term. This will not allow our children of Iowa to grow and thrive appropriately, it will only continue to put a strain on our daycare providers. This is not something that I want for my own children and our children of Iowa, for the above reasons I oppose the passing of this bill.

Chandlor Collins []

I comment on this legislation to demonstrate my disapproval of SSB3065 and its companion house bill. I believe I understand the impetus for this proposed legislation. There is a shortage of child care workers in the State, resulting in limited options for child care in many areas. This proposed solution would provide additional child care opportunities by expanding the capacity that each child care provider has available. Supply and demand.There is however, an inherent problem. The supply and demand here is not as easily solved as a conveyor belt or the amount of inventory that can be shipped. The system is one of people. Additional children for each provider may seem like a simple and appropriate fix. That is until you compare the possibly infinite amount of additional effort it takes to watch, interact, and care for more children, with the finite amount of mental and physical capacity that a child care provider has. The more long term results are likely clear. Children with less guidance and supervision and providers who are at their wits end trying to keep up.It is easy to consider childcare at this age as just "watching" children, but there is so much more. There are interactions with each child to help their development; sleep schedules that have to be balanced for growth, food and milk that must be provided at unique time intervals, and every other specific need for each child. This legislation's goal seems to be clear, but its outcomes in practice seems equally as clear. This legislation is bad for child care providers and bad for the children that they work with.