Parents Weigh Day-Care Options Online

Md. and D.C. Soon to Join Virginia in Posting Reports on Providers

A new mother, Poli Marinova set out to find the best possible day-care provider for her infant son. She had little trouble finding a list of nearby caregivers, but she discovered there was no easy way to check their track records in Maryland.

Then a friend sent her a link to an online system in Virginia, where she could view inspections and complaints. "You could look back over a number of years and see if there was anything major," said Marinova, 30, who settled on a day-care center near her Alexandria office. "That was very important to me."

At a time when many parents worry about safety in child care, a growing number of states have launched online record systems that bring a new layer of accountability into day-care decision making. Locally, Virginia's online system will be matched soon by similar initiatives in the District and Maryland.

Experts laud the improved access to public records for both day-care centers and home day-care operators, which they say is vital for parents, but many suggest that it will also take other changes to make the nation's day-care system safer. Many states need to conduct more inspections and tighten licensing standards, they say.

"We totally believe parents should have access and that it should be online and readily available," said Linda K. Smith, executive director of the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies. Still, the online system would be improved by better monitoring, Smith said. Otherwise, she said, "what parents see online is not going to be the full picture."

A study by researchers at Wellesley College that focused on Broward County, Fla., found that the Internet system alone improved the quality of child care at centers serving low-income children. The study also found that inspectors produced more detailed critiques, in greater number.

"I definitely think it's valuable," said sociologist Julia Wrigley of the City University of New York, who has studied child-care fatalities. "I think very often inspection reports are buried in state files, and few parents understand they can have access to them."

At least 17 states have posted inspection reports, full or in part, online.

In Virginia, where child-care inspection records went online in 2005 through the Department of Social Services, many parents say they take note of the infractions: an unlocked medicine cabinet, missing baby gates, lack of soap in a bathroom, caregivers found reading magazines or talking on cellphones. In one case, children were found restrained by snap belts and cords. In another, a child was forgotten in the back of a vehicle.

After each violation is a notation about what corrective action is to be taken.

"Parents need all the information they can get," said Karen Metivier-Carreiro, 44, a mother of two in Fairfax County. "You can get more information about buying a car than you can about who is caring for your children."

The online system, she said, "helps make people more accountable, and it also gives parents some leverage." Parents can better advocate for improvements or changes if they have a sense of history, Metivier-Carreiro said.