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A Review of State Regulations for Child Care: Preventing, Recognizing, and Reporting Child Maltreatment.

BACKGROUND
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 60% of children under five years of age were cared for in out-of-home child care arrangements in the United States. Thus, child care provides an opportunity to identify and address potential child maltreatment. However, during the pandemic, rates of reporting child maltreatment decreased - likely because children spent less time in the presence of mandated reporters. As children return to child care, states must have regulations in place to help child care providers prevent, recognize, and report child maltreatment. However, little is known about the extent to which state regulations address child maltreatment. Therefore, the purpose of this cross-sectional study was to assess state regulations related to child maltreatment and compare them to national standards.


METHOD
We reviewed state regulations for all 50 states and the District of Columbia for child care centers ("centers") and family child care homes ("homes") through July 31, 2021 and compared these regulations to eight national health and safety standards on child maltreatment. We coded regulations as either not meeting, partially meeting, or fully meeting each standard.


RESULTS
Three states (Colorado, Utah, and Washington) had regulations for centers and one state (Washington) had regulations for homes that at least partially met all eight national standards. Nearly all states had regulations consistent with the standards requiring that caregivers and teachers are mandated reporters of child maltreatment and requiring that they be trained in preventing, recognizing, and reporting child maltreatment. One state (Hawaii) did not have regulations consistent with any of the national standards for either centers or homes.


CONCLUSIONS
Generally, states lacked regulations related to the prevention, recognition, and reporting of child maltreatment for both centers and homes. Encouraging states to adopt regulations that meet national standards, and further exploring their impact on child welfare are important next steps.