Preschools Checked Less than Dog Kennels - voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled: The Education Blog

Preschools Checked Less than Dog Kennels - voiceofsandiego.org: Schooled: The Education Blog

Preschools Checked Less than Dog Kennels

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  Photo by Sam Hodgson

  This Mountain View child care program run by the Neighborhood House Association is reviewed at least every three years through a federal program, but others may be inspected only once every five years.

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From the Reporter

The Findings

In San Diego County and across California, severely slackened inspection rules leave children in preschools or child care less protected from undetected safety lapses than kids elsewhere.

The Details

State inspections used to happen annually. Now they can occur just twice a decade.

What It Means

The state has fallen short of a bar that national experts say is perilously low in the first place. A national association recommends that child care programs be visited four times a year, 20 times more often than California requires. It ranked California 50th out of 52 states and districts in child care licensing and oversight.

Posted: Sunday, May 22, 2011 2:55 pm | Updated: 7:35 am, Mon May 23, 2011.

• By Emily Alpert

Dog kennels are inspected once a year in San Diego County. Restaurants get vetted twice as often. But here and across California, preschools and child care centers can go five years without a checkup from state evaluators — and sometimes even longer.

State inspectors from the Community Care Licensing Division hasten to investigate complaints such as rat