Oklahoma Child Care Oversight Ranking Climbs

OKLAHOMA CAPITOL -- The Oklahoma child care oversight system is ranked third nationally in a report card (Link opens in new window) released today by a child care advocacy group, climbing three spots since 2007.
In the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies report card, We Can Do Better: 2009 Update, the state’s oversight and standards are ranked third overall, just behind the U.S. Department of Defense and the District of Columbia. In 2007, the We Can Do Better report card ranked Oklahoma sixth nationally.

The 2009 updated report examined licensing regulations and oversight on 10 regulations and five oversight benchmarks for child care centers in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Department of Defense.

Again this year, Oklahoma is the only state in the region to be ranked in the top 10 nationally.

OKDHS officials attributed the rise to consistent efforts by the Department, the Child Care Advisory Committee and community stakeholders to improve state child care requirements.

“The good news is that Oklahomans can have high confidence in the quality of child care their children receive,” stated OKDHS Director Howard H. Hendrick. “This recognition is the result of a lot of hard work not only by child care licensing staff, but by thousands of Oklahoma child care providers who deliver care to children every day.”

Currently, Oklahoma is the only state in the nation that requires three monitoring visits per year for all child care facilities, Hendrick added.

“Once again, we’re pleased with the results of the report card,” said Mark Lewis, director, Oklahoma Child Care Services. “However, child care is just one program that serves the Department’s overall mission and when combined with other programs, improves the quality of life for many Oklahomans.”

Each day, 22 percent of Oklahoma’s 550,000 children age 11 and under receive child care through one of the state’s 4,700 licensed child care facilities.

The 2009 NACCRRA report also revealed opportunities for Oklahoma to further strengthen its standards in areas including child to staff ratios, teacher education and additional background checks for child care workers.

“We continually work with the Child Care Advisory Committee and our partners in professional development to develop improved standards and provide support for training and educational opportunities,” stated Lu Ann Faulkner-Schneider, OCCS professional development manager. “We are currently working to establish a child care worker registry by July 2010 to identify people who are not eligible for employment in a child care facility. These are two areas where we can expect to strengthen our oversight system in the future.”

NACCRRA, a child care advocacy group, works with child care resource and referral agencies in each state to help ensure access to quality child care and to improve child care standards across the country. For more information, visit NACCRRA’s Web site at http://www.naccrra.org/ (Link opens in new window).

A similar report card for child care homes published in 2008 by NACCRRA ranked Oklahoma first.

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