An effort to deregulate licensing requirements for childcare providers who serve up to nine children has run into trouble in its first committee in the Senate.

Thursday, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee reviewed Senate Bill 15-070, sponsored by its chair, Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud.

The bill would remove licensing, registration and other regulatory requirements for childcare providers who serve fewer than 10 children. Current state law caps the number of children cared for by an unlicensed provider at four or fewer.

The bill would affect more than just daycare providers. It also would apply to before and after school programs, nursery schools, kindergartens, day and summer camps, and centers for children with developmental disabilities or those that provide 24-hour care.

Lundberg told the committee that the cap of nine children was a number that he picked arbitrarily. He said he did not find a professional association of unlicensed providers, although he was able to find plenty of individual unlicensed providers.

“Anyone can ‘fake out’ a visit” from the state, Lundberg told the committee. Classes for providers are expensive and “stupid,” he said. Childcare is too expensive and there aren’t enough providers. “The best regulator is not the state. It’s the parents,” he added. “Regulation drives cost.”

The state Department of Health and Human Services and the governor both opposed SB 70, according to Mary Anne Snyder, office director for Early Childhood programs for the DHHS. “You could have nine infants, or nine developmentally-disabled children or nine children in a treatment facility,” she said.

Colorado has approximately 2,560 licensed home facilities.; about 2,300 would be affected by the bill, Snyder told The Colorado Statesman.

Katherine Hinshaw of Westminster has seen first-hand what can go wrong when someone puts a son or daughter into the hands of an unlicensed childcare provider.

Last year, Hinshaw and her husband reviewed four childcare providers, two licensed and two unlicensed, for her 19-month-old son. They went with an unlicensed provider who was CPR-certified and an elementary education background. Her son would be one of four in the home.

In September, she went to pick up her son and found red marks on his forearm. The childcare provider said he had fallen. By the time Hinshaw got home and checked the rest of her son’s body, he had large, angry blisters on his arms, stomach and hands. They took him to their pediatrician, who sent them on to Children’s Hospital. Their son wound up in the burn unit.

Also, as it turned out, there were nine children in the home, not four. Child Protection Services and the police went to the provider and issued a cease-and-desist order.

The case was never closed because the police could not conclusively prove who burned her son. The childcare provider claimed the injuries took place prior to the son being dropped off at the provider’s home. However, Hinshaw told The Statesman that a police officer unaffiliated with the case told her that her son’s injuries looked like the kind a child would get from contact with an open oven door.

Hinshaw pointed out that the state maintains a database on licensed childcare providers. Had the injuries to her son taken place in the home of a licensed provider, that information would be available on the database. But “no one will ever know” what happened to her son because the provider was unlicensed, she said.

All but one of the witnesses signed up to testify on SB 70 opposed the bill, and that included at least a half-dozen licensed providers. Kathy Moyer, who has been a licensed provider for 15 years, said the cost of licensing is about $140 per year and it’s tax deductible as a business expense. The high cost of childcare is not due to regulation, Moyer insisted; it’s due to market forces, quality standards and the high cost of living in Colorado.

Lundberg said he believed his bill would increase competition and allow more parents to operate home-based childcare businesses; however, if passed, the law could actually create problems for families that receive federal subsidies for childcare.

Snyder told the committee that 15,000 slots with licensed providers could be lost under SB 70, which could create problems for families who receive the subsidy, since they are allowed to place their children only into licensed facilities.

Unlicensed providers also aren’t required to get criminal background checks, so if the provider had a felony record, was a registered sex offender or had drug problems, the family would never know. Hinshaw said she would have to pay $200 for a background check on just one unlicensed provider.

The only witness to testify in favor of SB 70 was Alessandra Desiderio of Englewood. Desiderio operates a business that partners licensed childcare facilities with open slots with businesses that want to help their employees find childcare. Unlicensed providers would like to participate as well, she told the committee, although she later admitted it might raise liability concerns for businesses.

The bill also got opposition from within the committee. Sen. Beth Martinez Humenik, R-Adams County, said she’d received 27 calls and emails opposing the bill and none in favor. In addition, Martinez Humenik said, she has a family member who has a home licensed for daycare and does not find the regulations or inspections troublesome. The family member acknowledged that there is a waiting list for “the good ones.” Another family member shared with Martinez Humenik that the state’s website has extensive information on licensed providers. Martinez Humenik, who comes from a swing district, did not have an opportunity say how she would vote.

Sensing the bill was in trouble, Lundberg offered to make a number of changes, from making licensure voluntary to reducing the number of children in an unlicensed home from nine or fewer to seven or fewer.

But that creates yet another problem.

The bill’s title is “Child Care Regulations Ten Or More Children Only.” As Sen. Linda Newell, D-Littleton pointed out during the hearing, Lundberg would not be able to change the bill’s title under the rules.

Lundberg asked the committee to postpone action on the bill while he works on amendments, but added that “if you’re against the bill, you’d better come up with a better solution.” More competition will reduce the waiting list for childcare, he said.

At his request, the committee laid over the bill to a later, as yet undetermined, date.

— Marianne@coloradostatesman.com