State licensing mandate jeopardizes city’s Summer Playground Program
State scrutiny threatens parks and rec plan
There are some summer days when Dianne Rommel wants her three children to leave the house.
When that happens, she sends them over to Quail Run School, where the city Parks and Recreation Department has a couple of adult supervisors on hand to make sure children play safely. Sometimes the supervisors take the children on trips to the pool, or to museums, all with parental consent.
Kennedy Fasching, 6, climbs on the playground at South Park while her father, Craig Fasching, supervises. A state requirement for the city to register as a child-care provider for its summer playground program could make the program too costly for the Parks and Recreation Department to continue after this summer.
“My children have enjoyed it in the past … most times they ask to go more than I send them,” said Rommel, who works part-time from home. “I do count on the program.”
But city officials say the Summer Playground Program, which serves as many as 400 children at five playgrounds across Lawrence, is in danger. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment says the city must register as a child-care provider to continue.
“I think this is government run amok, personally,” said Tom Bracciano, a member of the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.
Fred DeVictor, director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, said obtaining the licenses and meeting state child care requirements would cost the city roughly $50,000.
That’s too much for the city to absorb, he said, and too costly for families who now pay $65 per session for every child who participates in each of the two four-week sessions that are offered. The city might have to drastically reduce or even drop the program as a result.
“We do agree that private child-care providers and public agencies that provide this service on a year-round basis should be regulated,” DeVictor said. “We do not feel that these regulations should be imposed upon summer programs.”
KDHE spokesman Mike Heideman said his agency agrees. That’s why new temporary regulations were drawn up to ease the standards that trigger child-care licensing requirements. He couldn’t say what, if any, cities have licensed their parks programs under the old or new rules.
“We feel these temporary regulations are more appropriate and less stringent,” Heideman said. “KDHE’s goal is to make sure these types of programs are safe for children.”
DeVictor said the new regulations requiring licensing for programs that have children enrolled for 12 or more hours a week for two consecutive weeks would still force the city to obtain a license.
Tom Wilkerson, assistant parks director, said dropping the program could have social ramifications.
“Some of the kids won’t have anything to do during the day,” he said. “And they’ll end up across the river in a much more expensive judicial program.”
KDHE will have a public hearing June 19 to consider making the temporary regulations permanent. DeVictor said the city will lobby to further relax the standards; the department won’t attempt to get a license until after the hearing.
Whatever the result of the hearings, DeVictor said the program will continue through this summer. The future, however, is in doubt.
“The impact that these regulations will have on our programs,” he said, “will be catastrophic.”