NEWS

Des Moines halts day care crackdown after complaints

Timothy Meinch
tmeinch@dmreg.com
Tonja Boggs pulls out glue from a bin of supplies Feb. 11, 2016, as children work on a craft project at her in-home day care in Des Moines.

Des Moines is halting its planned crackdown on hundreds of in-home child care providers after a barrage of complaints that parents would be left with nowhere to take their children, according to city officials.

City Manager Scott Sanders told The Des Moines Register on Monday he is calling off an enforcement plan that could have eliminated more than 1,800 day care slots in the city. Instead, city officials will discuss changing local laws to meet the demands of child care providers and parents.

“There’s been an outpouring of concern by Des Moines citizens that we have this conversation in the open,” Sanders said Monday afternoon. “We’re going to hold off on compliance reviews.”

That decision to halt reviews comes too late for  Tonja Boggs. She is the day care provider who first shined a light on the city's problematic ordinance after city officials told her she was caring for too many children.

Boggs  watched as many as 12 children simultaneously.

She was authorized to care for that many children by the state Department of Human Services. But Des Moines' rules limit in-home day cares to six children. The ordinance has been in place for more than 30 years but is rarely enforced.

PREVIOUSLY:  D.M. cracks down on in-home day cares

The city looked into Boggs' day care after a neighbor complained about parking issues outside her home on Des Moines' south side. City officials required Boggs to limit the number of children she cared for to no more than six at a time.

Boggs complied with the ruling, but she filed a complaint against more than 480 other in-home day care providers operating in the city. Like Boggs, those providers are authorized to watch from eight to 16 children.

City officials had vowed to review each of those providers, though they acknowledged that it would take more than a year.

During a phone interview with the Register, Boggs laughed when she learned of the decision Monday, calling the news “definitely a small win.”

She said she never intended for the city to investigate every provider.

“I knew ‘You don’t have the money, the manpower, the time,’” she said. “The complaint was really to pull the providers together. That is happening. It’s taking place.”

Video: Daycare provider challenges city ordinance

Boggs said that in the past week, she has received pledges and heard from more than 50 providers. She scheduled a formal gathering for concerned providers at Bread of Life Church, 2727 E. Railroad Ave., at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Sanders and City Council members said they heard from dozens of concerned residents, including providers, parents and advocates, after the Register published a story about the enforcement effort being planned for in-home child care providers.

United Way of Central Iowa alerted its  supporters about the city’s plans. United Way officials said enforcement of the local ordinance would create “a drastic reduction of availability of child care in Des Moines, negatively impacting hundreds of working families.”

D.M. cracks down on in-home day cares

Sanders said he decided to halt the enforcement effort after individual conversations with City Council members. This month, he plans to begin public talks about how the local ordinance could change.

He said the ordinance, established in 1983, was scheduled for reconsideration as part of a housing and building code overhaul during the year ahead. But discussion of in-home day care will now take top priority.

Sanders previously said it would be unlikely that the city ordinance could match DHS authorization, which allows for as many as 16 children in a home day care setting. He suggested that the city might be able to raise the limit to eight.

Councilwoman Christine Hensley said Monday that she supports putting enforcement on hold.

“I didn’t think it was fair to go after those entities until we knew how we are going to handle it as a city,” she said.

“My concern is the loss of day care slots," Hensley said. "There clearly is an impact to the families and the providers who are running a business.”

As for the ruling against Boggs’ operation, Hensley said she believes that’s a separate issue that will likely hold up unless there’s a change in the local ordinance.

“That decision has been made … but I think it’s a valid question, and I’m going to talk to legal about that.”

Sanders said Boggs would be permitted to increase capacity beyond six children if the city changes its ordinance.