Faculty member's research aims to assure quality child care

Photo: Penn State Harrisburg Richard Fiene

University Park, Pa. — Child care is part of the daily routine for millions of American families with more than 12 million children under age 5 in some type of out-of-the-home facility each week.

As a result, the quality of these settings where children spend a large part of their time is a continuing matter of public and governmental concern.

"There’s a lot of child care out there, but some is not very good," said Penn State Harrisburg Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies Richard Fiene who has spent more than 30 years assisting parents and state agencies define quality in preschool care.

A faculty member in the Penn State Harrisburg School of Behavioral Sciences and Education, Fiene's teaching responsibilities include classes in the undergraduate Human Development and Family Studies major which prepares graduates to work in a wide range of professions, including day care centers, child and domestic abuse facilities, and runaway shelters.

Fiene's ongoing research in which he has identified 13 key indicators of child care quality is now being used by one of the leading advocacy organizations in the nation. The National Association for Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) has made the list of indicators available to parents through the Child Care Aware program on its web site at www.naccrra.org. Fiene explains, “NACCRRA is the foremost national organization assisting parents to choose high-quality child care and the provider of guidelines for all states in the U.S.”

When interested parents and agencies visit the NACCRRA Web site and visit the “Child Care Aware” presentation, a link to Choosing Child Care takes them directly to an overview and the 13 indicators developed by Fiene. Originally developed by Fiene for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the indicators each include checklists for parents to determine overall quality of a facility. Fiene suggests parents visit a number of child care providers and use the checklist before making a final decision.

The indicators of quality include standards that deal with the supervision of staff, hand washing and diapering, director qualifications, lead teacher qualifications, child-to-staff ratio and group size, immunizations, unavailability of toxic substances, emergency plans, fire drills, child abuse prevention, medications, staff training and fire drills, and playground safety.

He notes there are several things that parents should look for and that a program can do to foster an effective and harm-free child care experience. They include: increased caregiver support, a focus on positive behavior, and training opportunities.

"Really good child care will give children a good start in school," Fiene advised. "It's very important for us to be concerned about the social aspect of early care."

"For 30 years, I have worked every six years on longitudinal studies in Pennsylvania for the governor's office to document how quality changes based on changes in public policy. Things have come a long way. I got discouraged at times, but we’ve turned it around. Things are much better in Pennsylvania and great strides have been made in child care quality," he says reflecting on governmental regulations.

In a related endorsement of his efforts, The National Association for Regulatory Administration has posted links to 44 of Fiene’s publications profiling his research on quality child care. They can be accessed at www.naralicensing.org.

As an extension of his child-centered research and scholarship, Fiene was also one of three Penn State faculty members to recently be awarded a $130,000 grant to conduct a national study of early childhood professional development programs and earlier this year he was granted funding to resurrect the Harrisburg Collaborative Research Scholar Initiative which addresses health and human services needs in the capital region.