Day-care providers, by contrast, are usually required to attend a single session devoted to a mishmash of topics from CPR techniques to food menus. In Las Vegas, Suzanne Magleby, a supervisor for Clark County social services, says her county requires six hours of training instead of the state-mandated three, which she wants to bump up to 12. Of the 15 women there, three did not speak English. One slept through the entire video on infection control. Three women arrived an hour and a half late but were assured by the instructor that they would still be credited the full six hours to receive their certification.
Many states now urge former welfare recipients to be trained as day-care workers.
While restaurants are shut down every day for even minor hygiene violations, records show that day-care centers in America are rarely closed. Frequently, licensing authorities try to keep troubled facilities open so working parents won't be left in the lurch. In a recent case in Guthrie, Okla., outside Oklahoma City, a family day-care center had accumulated a staggering 415 complaints against it but was still operating when a young boy died at the facility last November. Trey, inconsolable after his mother dropped him off, had walked out of the building undetected onto a highway. He was struck by a passing automobile.