Topeka ? Lawrence officials continued their fight Wednesday against proposed state regulations they said threatened the city’s 60-year-old summer playground program.

The popular day camps involve more than 400 Lawrence children each summer.

Keisha Davis, left, and Ophelia Marie Vann Armstrong, both 9, get twisted up and spun around by Jamie Reed, a counselor with parks and recreation's summer playground program at the Ryan Gray Playground. The group met with other children Wednesday at Centennial Park for the summer program and then walked to the bigger playground at Hillcrest School.

Fred DeVictor, the city’s parks and recreation director, told Kansas Department of Health and Environment officials that requiring the program to obtain state child-care licensing would be prohibitively expensive, perhaps pushing children from poorer families away from the program.

“We can pass those dollars on, but if we do, how many low-income participants would be able to afford it?” he said at Wednesday’s hearing on the regulations.

DeVictor was backed by Laura Kelly, executive director of the Kansas Recreation and Parks Assn. She said supervised recreation programs differed from formal child care.

“The fact that some parents might use them as child care is not grounds for licensing,” she said. “If it were, then just about every municipal pool, library and shopping mall also would need to be licensed.”

City officials say hundreds of Lawrence children participate in the eight-week playground program, paying $65 apiece for each four weeks they participate.

The program, including supervision for children with mental and physical disabilities, costs the city more than $90,000 a year. DeVictor said the costs of licensing including pay for staff members with higher qualifications and providing snacks to children would add roughly $30,000 to the costs. One way to raise the money would be to increase fees to $110 per child.

DeVictor said 30 percent of the children in the program already received financial aid to participate.

“What are these kids going to do?” he said.

Lawrence parks officials were told earlier this year they were required to obtain a license for the program. But the new child-care regulations have been in the works about two years, and the city decided to await the outcome of that process before applying for a license.

The new regulations require a license for any program operating 12 or more hours a week for two consecutive weeks, a threshold easily met by Lawrence’s playground program. There is an exemption for “summer programs,” but only those operated by local school districts.

There are also exemptions for “single-activity” programs, such as vacation Bible schools put on by churches and youth basketball leagues.

DeVictor told KDHE officials the summer playground program should also be exempt.

“We do not promote our program as a day-care program,” he said. “It’s a recreation program.”

Chris Ross-Baze, director of KDHE’s child-care licensing and registration section, defended the new rules.

“By licensing these programs, the health, safety and welfare of Kansas children will be protected by appropriate regulatory safeguards,” she said.

And she dismissed concerns that rising program costs might result from the regulations.

“We’ve made every effort to impose less stringent and less costly rules,” she said.

KDHE officials said they expected the rules to be finalized by July 29.