Safe child care

Gaby Sanchez's son has special needs - he's living with Down syndrome.

Not only does she have three of her own children, but she reared foster children.

The only problem was that she couldn't find a day care center for her handful of little ones.

On May 23, 2007, Sanchez and a friend of hers, Karen Price, who also was a foster parent, started their own day care.

 "We had a hard time finding a day care center for our foster kids," Price said. "We needed it, and the city needed it."

More than a year later, Day Star Kids Learning Center is a fully functioning success story.

Both said they couldn't have done it without Child Care Licensing, whom Sanchez and Price said helped them with business advice and kept them informed of guidelines.

Child Care Licensing is a part of Child Protective Services, which covers nine counties in the Permian Basin. 

A Child Care Licensing inspector was at Day Star on Tuesday doing a routine check as part of the organizations' "Don't be in the Dark campaign."

Child Care Licensing visits are usually unannounced. On one such visit, Price and Sanchez were loading up the children for a field trip when Child Care Licensing showed up. It was by chance that Child Care Licensing was able to offer advice and a reminder of guidelines for their excursion.

"We want them to be successful," Della Weaver, a licensing inspector, said. She said a lot of people trying to open or maintain day care centers think Child Care Licensing is out trying to get them, but that's not the case.

Price, in fact, said she appreciates the licensing process.

"If you take the advice to heart, then it makes the day care center successful," Price said. "Licensing is there to help us make sure the kids are safe."

Both Price and Sanchez said they had personal reasons for wanting the day care, and they have experience, as well as a need.

Odessa has a shortage of day care centers. Child Care Licensing supervisor Jennifer McDougall said it's difficult to find people to work in day care centers because so many people are running to the oilfields for higher pay.

She also said people starting day care centers aren't seeking licensing because of the unknown hurdles they think they have to overcome.

"Unfortunately, many child care operations have gone underground," Diana Spiser, assistant commissioner for Child Care Licensing, said in a news release.

McDougall said day care investigations have increased this year because of things like an increase in population, a shortage of centers and the appeal of cutting corners in underground operations.

Sanchez said her day care did take some initial work, but it wasn't that difficult - it took her four months to get off the ground.

"We were working day and night, nonstop," Sanchez said.

The process is manageable if people do their homework, check guidelines with Child Care Licensing and research finances, she said.

Not only did Sanchez have a difficult time finding a place for her foster children, but having a son with special needs also made her situation more difficult.

She accepts children with special needs into her day care center, but she makes sure it isn't too much for her team to handle.

Annette Garms said the day care center takes good care of special needs children.

"They're good about integrating them with the other children," she said.

If Sanchez can't take the special needs children in, then she offers the parents direction and pulls together information packets, letting them know where to go.

"I know, I was there once myself," she said.  

CHILD CARE FACTS

>> There are more than 900,000 Texas children in regulated child care.

>> The number of illegal day care operations and number of children in illegal care are unknown.

>> 9,319: Licensed child care centers.

>> 3,900: Licensed homes.

>> 7,214: Listed homes.

>> 21,969: Total number of facilities.

SOURCE: TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY AND PROTECTIVE SERVICES