By ASHLEY BURKETT
College Park Mayor Fazlul Kabir sent a letter to state legislators in September asking for a review of day care rules that require one staff member per three children if they are younger than 24 months.
In the letter, which the College Park City Council approved on Sept. 24, the mayor noted that the cost of child care creates “significant economic burdens on families in College Park.”
In the letter to District 21 lawmakers, Kabir said Maryland has “perhaps one of the most restrictive staff/child ratios in the United States for infants and toddlers.”
In a report to the council, Councilmember Stuart Adams (District 3), who has a child in day care, said tuition at the University of Maryland (UMD) Child Development Center on Calvert Road runs $27,744 a year for infants and toddlers younger than 24 months.
The center has an enrollment of 24 infants, 12 toddlers, 24 2-year-olds, and 47 preschool and kindergarten-prep children, according to the UMD Division of Administration Communications.
The Maryland Family Network reported that Maryland residents are spending upward of 32% of their income on child care, while the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that parents spend no more than 7% of their income on child care.
Adams said the required small child-to-staff ratio in Maryland “kind of was a big … determining factor for cost.”
He said Maryland’s ratio is the most restrictive of any state that he found during his research.
The District has a ratio of one staff member per four 0-24 month olds, and Virginia requires one provider per four infants from 0-16 months old, according to Adams’ report.
Adams said many local parents can’t afford the cost of the UMD Child Development Center, a joint venture of the city and UMD.
The city leases the space to the center for free. In exchange, the center gives priority to city residents who work for the university, and holds 14 spots for those who live in the city but are not affiliated with UMD, according to Christina Cross, the day care’s director.
“It’s for university faculty and it’s for residents of College Park,” Adams said. “I know of people that are in that situation and they’re not sending their kid there because it’s just so economically impractical for them.”
He noted that if the ratio is increased, parents could have more opportunities to find suitable, affordable, high-quality child care.
Adams predicted a change in the state’s required staff-to-student ratio could take two or three years.