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Physical Environment
Space Design
Designing a child friendly space is an important aspect of operating any child care facility. For family child care providers there are additional considerations that must be addressed the physical space is not only a business facility; it is also a home. This duality presents both rewards and challenges for the provider. The following online resources and information should prove useful to family child care providers in considering how best to design and use their space.
The Center for Architecture & Urban Planning Research includes a section of publications on designing children's environments. While most of the articles refer to centers, schools or play areas, many of the topics that are presented could prove useful to family child care providers as well.
The ARC of the United States offers a factsheet on The Child Care Settings and the Americans with Disabilities Act that provides both questions and answers on what the ADA means for a child care center or family day care home. It includes information on architectural barriers, safety requirements, and auxiliary aids and services.
Available from eCampus, Recommendations for Child Care Centers by Gary T. Moore et al. and published by Wisconsin University's Center for Architecture and Urban Planning Research is part of a seven-volume series on children's environments. This guide includes patterns for large, medium, and small child care centers in neighborhood and work-place settings. Many of the patterns are also appropriate for family day-care homes. The patterns are based on a 3-year, federally-funded national research project conducted in the late 1970s. The research evaluated 52 child care centers and outdoor play yards around the United States and Canada, including observations of child-environment interactions, interviews with key staff members, and open-ended interviews with the children. National experts in early childhood development and design were interviewed, and some 2,000 pieces on environment-behavior research and design literature were collected from around the world and analyzed.
Children, Youth and Environments is an international network of publications, articles and information dedicated to improving children's environments. It contains a database of individuals and organizations worldwide as well as reports and book reviews of such offerings as Overcoming Obstacles to Create Retreats in Family Child Care by Nancy Weinberger and Injury Hazards in Outdoor Play Areas of Family Day Care Homes by Susan G. Brink, Susan R. Tortolero, and Nancy O'Hara.
Designing Child Care Settings: A Child-Centered Approach by Lorraine E. Maxwell and published by the Cornell Cooperative Extension is designed to help child care providers (including directors and staff of day care centers, Head Start centers, nursery schools, and family child care) design indoor and outdoor settings for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and younger school-age children. It stresses the importance of the physical environment on influencing children's experiences. The manual also contains information on designing a new center and working with an architect.
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Zoning
Most family child care zoning requirements are based upon city or county ordinances, and often include obtaining approval from a local office such as the fire deparment or securing a appropriate license. If seeking knowledge about the exact provisions surrounding zoning in a particular community, please check with the local zoning commission.
The Child Care Law Center (CCLC) has information on a variety of legal issues including liability and insurance, zoning and deed restrictions, contracts, and materials about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), all of which is pertinent to family child care providers.
While the following ruling does not apply national, it may be of interest to all family care providers In 2002, The Michigan supreme court ruled that family day care homes in residential areas violate restrictive covenants in the case Terrien v. Zwit, SC docket No. 115924. The majority judges ruled that since the operation of a day care center out of a home is a commercial business for the purpose of making a profit, they can be banned by municipalities’ restrictive covenants. In dissent, two judges said that zoning ordinances should be interpreted according to how the use of the land affects the general plan of the area, and in this case the use of the home as a day care center did not affect the general plan. Such an interpretation, they said, would preclude such activities as freelance writing and babysitting.
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Landlord/Public Housing Issues
Landlord & Tenant Issues for Child Care Vol. 2: A Resource for Providers is one of seven manuals in the Child Care Library at the Enterprise Foundation. It is a guide to working with landlords for home-based child care providers.
Small and Large Family Child Care Homes, published by Human Services Division of the City of Santa Monica, discusses the issues of lanlord/association notification and the inclusion of the landlord/association on the insurance policy. While this manual focuses on local Santa Monica regulations, the discussion may be more widely useful.
Published by the The National Economic Development & Law Center, Linking Child Care Development and Housing Development: Tools for Child Care Providers and Advocates discusses landlord liability of family child care facilities.
Published by the Enterprise Foundation, the report Profiles of Successful Child Care Programs examines a project that was jointly sponsored by the Dallas Housing Authority (DHA) and the Child Care Group (CCG) which developed, and continues to support, 10 family child care homes to serve residents of three public housing developments in Dallas, Texas.
In its effort to empower local child care advocates as they work to remove difficult legal barriers, including land use and deed restrictions, zoning ordinances, objections from landlords, and liability concerns for child care providers, The Child Care Law Center (CCLC) works by educating and working with local lawmakers, mayors, policy groups, planning departments, city managers, and other officials. CCLC collects and updates information on zoning policies that affect child care from localities across the country and help advocates working to enact statewide zoning protections for family child care. As part of one of its current efforts, CCLC is analyzing public housing authorities’ policies in California regarding family child care in federally subsidized housing and seeking to ensure that they offer the child care services needed by their low-income tenants.
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