The wafting scent of tater-triangles fills the air. A small group of fidgety 4-year-olds listens while their teacher reads It Begins With A.

“Emily, I need your hair to be out of your mouth now, please,” she says to one distracted child.

The other teachers in the room begin setting up the theme-oriented learning centers at each miniature table. A typical morning at Formative Years Growing and Learning Center, 4510 Todd Drive, is under way.

Formative Years, like all Iowa day-care centers, must pass an annual evaluation to remain fully licensed by the state of Iowa. To be licensed, day cares must offer programming, such as the learning centers, that is “developmentally appropriate,” according to day-care consultant Craig Whitney who conducts the inspections for the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS).

“You look to see that they aren’t trying to make 3-year-olds color in the lines,” Whitney said. “And 5-year-olds shouldn’t be playing with the 2-year-olds’ equipment.”

According to the most recent DHS standards for child-care centers, effective since November of 1995, a center’s curriculum must “promote self-esteem, a positive self-image, social interaction, self expression and communication skills, creative expression and problem-solving.”

It is also important that there be a “balance of active and quiet, individual and group, indoor and outdoor, staff-initiated and child-initiated” activities that “promote both gross and fine motor” skills, according to the standards.

The programming criteria also require that staff take an active role in the learning experience.

“A big thing I look for is if staff involved with the kids or if they’re sitting off to the side watching the kids play,” he said. “Do they let the kids try to resolve their problems and situations, or do they try to jump in?”

Whitney’s jurisdiction includes about 40 centers in Polk County, with other centers in Story, Marshall and Hardin counties, bringing the total to 125. He said he finds that the day cares in Ames have a different feel to them than the ones he evaluates in Des Moines.

“This is a more relaxed atmosphere,” he said.

Whitney said he feels that much of the difference in approach stems from the fact that Ames is home to Iowa State University.

“With the college and the child development programs here, the emphasis is on the early childhood development versus trying to educate people,” Whitney said. “So, in some ways, Ames has been a forerunner in that area.”

Of the 28 preschools and day-care centers in Ames, all have passed Whitney’s inspections to be fully licensed by the state. Any non-home-based center with more than seven children is required to be inspected by the state, according to Jerri Baumeister, director of the Center for Childcare Resources (CCR) in Ames. The CCR “is a child care resource and referral agency,” she said.

Besides the programming requirements, the state also evaluates Iowa day-care centers on numerous other areas and criteria. These include administration, health and safety policies, personnel, food services, records and others. Centers must also pass a fire safety inspection conducted by the fire inspector. This includes having all exits unobstructed and clearly labeled.

Records for the children and staff at facilities have been a major area of concern for the state. As one part of the DHS evaluation requirements, all centers must keep their records up to date. Included with general employment information in the staff files are records of current physical exams, child abuse training and first aid and CPR certification. Keeping records current ensures that all staff members at Iowa day-care centers meet the requirement to maintain current status in these areas.

Records for children in day-care facilities must be kept up to date because they include information about a child’s allergies, health status, emergency contacts and parental permission for various activities.

At Formative Years, director Carol Simonson said her records are as current as possible for a center handling over 100 families.

“Probably about 95 percent of our records are up-to-date today,” she said.

The new owners of one Ames center ran into some problems with out-of-date records. Woodstock Children’s Center, 615 13th St., was temporarily issued a provisional license by Whitney because its records needed some major attention.

The state has three options when issuing day-care licenses. It can issue a full license, which means that on the day of the evaluation visit, “everything was OK,” Whitney said.

The state can also deny a license to a center, signifying that “something is terribly wrong,” he said.

The other option is for the state to issue a provisional license.

“The provisional license just means that there’s something there that just isn’t quite [okay],” Whitney said.

The owners of Woodstock were given 30 days to make sure their records were ready for another inspection.

“We have a full license now,” said Woodstock’s owner and director Kassandra Petersen. Woodstock also needed some other improvements when Petersen and her husband took over.

“The owners were absent owners for the last three years,” Petersen said. They lived out of state and rented the facility for use as a day-care center, she said.

“The staff that were here ran a very unstructured program. From top to bottom, there was no program,” she said. “There was just chaos.”

Their prompt attention to the problems at the center helped the Petersens switch Woodstock from a provisional to a full license, Petersen said.

Formally arranged annual evaluations of Iowa’s day-care centers are required by law, but Whitney said he believes they are only part of the licensing process.

“It’s the unannounced visits that are almost more valuable,” he said. These visits have helped to ensure that the planned inspections aren’t just a sterilized view of the center.

“People used to have that ‘get ready for inspection syndrome,’ and then, before the consultant was out the door, they would be back to their old ways,” Whitney said.

“But now, things pretty much run about the way they should year-round,” he said.

Whitney said he tries to emphasize the positive aspects of a center, rather than the negative, and that he very seldom actually “chews anybody out,” but instead points out specific standards that need to be met.

“My feeling is that if it’s specifically addressed in the standards, I have not only the authority, but the responsibility to do whatever I can do to bring about a change if something’s not working

“I don’t care if my mother’s running the day-care center, if I come in and she’s doing something wrong, it’s my job to point it out to her,” he said.

Whitney said he thinks it is important that parents realize that they play a crucial role in their children’s experience with day care.

“For a long time, parents believed that just because a place was licensed, that it was OK and they didn’t need to question,” he said. But he said the quality of a day-care center has much to do with parental interaction with its daily operation.

“Parents need to be good consumers” of child care, he said.