A study conducted recently indicates parents living in Iowa have a reason to be concerned about the safety of their children when they’re at child care centers, and an ISU professor is explaining the implications to state politicians Wednesday.

Susan Hegland, professor of human development and family studies, will travel to Des Moines to meet with the Iowa Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday to present them with results of the study, which was conducted by the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Iowa State.

The study examined the policies and quality of childcare in Iowa. She will also tell the committee what improvements are needed in Iowa’s family and child care centers to ensure parents of the safety and well-being of their children.

“Iowans are making choices on what they’re seeing, but they’re not seeing the regulation of diaper changing or food preparation,” Hegland said. “Child care is not just a problem of mothers who can’t stay home to work … the wages we’re paying in Iowa don’t allow a mom to stay home. Seventy-three percent of [Iowa] children under six have both parents in the work force, which is the highest in the country.”

Hegland said she and two Iowa State colleagues, Carla Peterson and Lesia Oesterreich, partnered with Iowa’s Department of Human Services on the study that compared child care in Iowa to Missouri, Nebraska and Kansas.

Hegland said researchers identified providers of full-day, full-year child care with children from birth to 5 years old in centers with infants and toddlers, centers with preschoolers, and family child care registered and non-registered homes across the four states. Researchers spoke with 2,000 providers over the phone and observed 400 providers in their care centers.

Hegland said the most important finding of the study is that the quality of Iowa’s child care is significantly less than other states.

“Iowa’s caregivers earn less than the other three states by $2,000, have significantly fewer training hours and there is less regulation and enforcement done in [Iowa’s] family and child care centers,” Hegland said.

Hegland said unsanitary clean-ups of the sinks and children’s hands, inadequate books to read or look at and a lack of communication between providers and children were found during some observations.

Mimi Goodarzi, owner of Sunshine Group Daycare, 416 Jeffrey Lane in Ames, said she agrees with the study’s findings. Goodarzi has a masters in child psychology, which helps her stay aware of the well-being of the children in her center. She said she thinks many people open child care centers without adequate education.

“I go to classes and see people opening child care centers with no education and they are able to obtain a license,” Goodarzi said. “I think they should at least have a bachelor of science degree to open a center or people [should have] a strong background in child care. It should not be just people who get a license and open a center so they can stay at home with their kids.”

Hegland said the role of regulation and enforcement is to provide consumers’ children protection. Hegland said only 20 percent of caregivers are observed by the human services department each year.

“It’s not just regulation, it’s enforcement. We might see a difference in the level of quality if caregivers knew they were being observed more often,” Hegland said.

“I can’t cut your hair in my home without a license, but I can care for up to 12 kids without a license or five kids without registering … where other states have [enforced] licenses.”

Cindy Anderson, associate professor of sociology, said as a mother of a one-year-old son the results of the study concern her. Anderson said she is even more concerned for families with low incomes who can’t afford an adequate child care provider.

“I’m fortunate because I have the financial means to pay for child care that meets the regulation,” Anderson said. “There is a big need for child care with both parents working. As a single mom I’ve got to have a child care center I can count on.”

Hegland said the state is trying to improve regulation standards by requiring more training, but said she thinks this is an inefficient and ineffective way to enforce safety regulations for children.

“Regulation gets you from low quality [child care] to mediocre and training gets you from mediocre to good quality,” Hegland said.

By talking to the committee on Wednesday, Hegland said her primary goal is to help people in Iowa see child care as something impacting the quality of life in Iowa in terms of school, economics and child abuse.