State of Regulations for Child Care Centers in West Virginia Weakness
Strength ✔✔ Child care centers are inspected three times a year.
✗✗ Family child care providers can care for up to four unrelated children for pay without a license.
✔✔Child care licensing staff are required to have a Bachelor’s degree.
✗✗ Child care licensing inspectors have an average caseload of 71 programs.
✔✔ Center staff are required to have orientation, fire safety and other health and safety training.
✗✗ Reports of routine inspections conducted at child care programs and reports of those conducted because of complaints are not available online.
✔✔ Centers are required to have at least one first-aid and CPR certified staff on the premises.
✗✗ Center directors are not required to have a college degree.
✔✔ Requires program activities to address all six developmental domains (social, physical, language/literacy, cognitive/ intellectual, emotional and cultural).
✗✗ Lead teachers in centers are not required to have a CDA credential or an Associate’s degree.
✔✔ Health and safety standards address all 10 basic standards (immunizations, guidance/discipline, diapering/handwashing, fire drills, medicine administration, incident reporting, hazardous materials, playground surfaces under outdoor equipment, emergency preparedness and placing infant on back).
✗✗ Center staff are required to complete only 15 hours of annual training in the first year.
✗✗ Center staff are required to undergo only state-level background checks, which include checks of criminal history records using a fingerprint, and checks of child abuse and neglect registries. The check does not explicitly include sex offender registries.
✔✔ Has requirements regarding parent involvement and communication, and allows parental visits.
✗✗ Meets NAEYC’s ratio requirements for only three of seven age groups (6, 9 and 18 months). Does not meet ratio requirements for 27-month and 3, 4 and 5-year-olds.
Recommendations
✗✗ Meets NAEYC’s group size requirements for only two of seven age groups (6 and 9 months). Does not meet group size requirements for 18 and 27-month and 3, 4 and 5-year-olds.
■■ Increase the minimum educational requirements for some center directors from 10 to 15 years of work experience. ■■ Increase the hours of orientation training required of new staff to more than eight hours. ■■ Make inspection and complaint reports available online for parents to review.
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