The Child Day Care Association is a good resource:

http://www.childcarestl.org

This place wasnt licensed?

Why was the child left there then?
Isnt that a little irresponsible on the parents part?

Isnt checking the licence, calling the BBB, checking that the workers have proper first aid training.. etc, etc… all stuff that the parent themselves should have done?

Or is a cheaper price all that matters?

If thats the case then it’s not really the govt fault but the parents. They did after all CHOOSE to bring those children into this world. Isnt it their job to make sure that whoever they leave the kids with is qualified and licensed?

If only people thought of this stuff BEFORE they had kids.

Don’t get me started on the corporate welfare, TIF’S etc that is a whole different topic!!
I don’t think that any gov’t should “help” provide day care. License and monitor them yes but not subsidies. I agree with Karen people need to think through the responsibilities and costs of raising children, day care included before having them!
My wife went part time after our two children arrived. We added up the cost of daycare, increased car insurance, reliable car (our second car we only trust around the neighborhood) etc. and the difference was something we could survive without. Full disclosure…my wife is a nurse and works between 15-20 hours a week. The hours she works are in the evening or the weekends when I can take care of our children. Therefore, because of her profession it is easier to work part-time, however, we could still live comfortable without this income. I realize I am lucky in having a good paying job but we still make sacrifices. We don’t live the bigger house which we could if she worked full time, we don’t drive expensive automobiles, buy expensive furniture, as a matter of fact most of our furntiture we have bought second hand except for the mattresses (can’t stand the thought of a used mattress).

I have been in a state licensed day care that was filthy and the kids were not taken care of very well. Childcare providers should have to be licensed by the state but the state should also check up on these licensed daycares. That was a terrible thing that happened with this baby but it could have happened in a licensed daycare also because being licensed by the state does not exempt daycare providers from being careless. I am shocked at some of the conditions I have seen in some licensed daycare facilities. Of course the state checks up on there paper work but they dont check up on the childrens welfare or conditions of the daycare facilities.

I had conversations with my ex about childcare (which I’ve always chosen myself, based upon information about licensing and teacher education, as well as background checks of everyone working in the center as well as personal experiences from other parents who’d sent children there), and he didn’t understand why I would NOT just evaluate based on cost, and also didn’t understand my trust issues with leaving my child with an individual provider (call me paranoid, I’m sure most give good care, but, I like the oversight of a facility).

Of course, I believe that one major issue we’re overlooking here is maternity leave policies in this country. I HATED having to leave my 8 week old child with other people because I had to return to work.
Check out maternity leave policies in Canada and the UK!!! Tell me what you think when you compare them to ours.

Here, parents can get 6-12 weeks off to be with their new child, and they are guaranteed a job when they return. That’s it. I wasn’t truly comfortable leaving my son until he was close to a year old and had nearly full control over his own movements, etc.

In other countries, the mother can take from six months up to a full year off to raise her child, with her job guaranteed upon her return. She is only taking partial pay, of course, but, she can do it.
If we would expand our maternity leave policies, there would be MUCH less need for these unlicensed centers everywhere (because as many parents know, finding INFANT care is the hardest part, toddler care is much easier to find in licensed facilities).
See here: http://www.momsrising.org/maternity

The answer is, mothers need to be at home taking care of the kids.

Scott - Why don’t you stay at home and let your wife head off to work? Women are making a lot more money than men these days.

Most people think of Parents as Teachers as working with parents. What many people don’t realize is that Parents as Teachers also works with child care providers. They offer child development information to share with parents, keep them aware of new information (such as not putting an infant to sleep on its stomach), health and safety issues, and things like age-appropriate activities they can use with the children in their care.

Licensed or not, child care is an issue parents struggle with everywhere. Parents as Teachers can help on both sides of the issue.

My husband and I have two young children and my husband and I struggle to pay for childcare for the two of them. I wonder why some are so quick to throw out there, “Don’t have children if you can’t afford it”? Are the working middle class less deserving of children because we struggle to afford 300-500 dollars weekly to pay for our children to be cared for? My children are cared for by a non liscensed babysitter who treats them as well as any grandmother out there and for that we are truly blessed. How dare anyone say that because this mother had her baby at a babysitter it was HER FAULT that the baby died??

First off, I have to say, I went to high school with Shelley and had heard that her youngest passed away while he was at child care. My heart breaks for her and her family as they have had to deal with something no parent should ever have to deal with.
Now, in terms of day care, it’s truly insane how expensive it is! We were lucky enough to have a wonderful woman I have known since grade school babysit our daughter. She and her family love my daughter like she’s part of the family and I know this sort of care is extremely rare. I would never give her up! My daughter is the only child at our baby sitters this summer and during school there is one other child, so I know she’s getting the one-on-one attention that she needs.
You can plan all you want, but until you have the child, you truly don’t know how expensive it is. Plus, I have yet to find someone who can look into the future and know that they will always be financially sound enough to care for a child. Personally, I was laid off 8 days after returning from my UNPAID materity leave (unpaid maternity leave is another subject I could go on about and have to agree wholeheartedly with a poster above). How were we supposed to plan for that? I know, we should have had 6 months savings reserved blah blah blah, but if we had tried to do that, we would still be saving and not have the beautiful daughter we do.
Missouri needs to seriously re-evaluate our child care system and impose some sort of regulations that are more strict so tragedies like this don’t happen. Again, my heart aches for Shelley and her family.