The safety of children is on the minds of everyone, and should be. The trial of Louise Woodward, an English au pair kept the issue in the forefront of the world news for more than 8 months. When defenseless children are harmed, it is first page news, and it should be. The spotlight has drawn the world’s attention to the in home childcare profession. There are no standards for regulation of our industry. As a result, legislators who know little about who we are and what we do are trying to regulate us. As professional nannies, professional nanny referral agencies and nanny educators we must work to educate the general public about our capabilities and we must be the driving forces that will regulate our industry. Living in a democratic society, we don’t want government to legislate what choice parents should make about their childcare. I see government’s role to provide tools and resources to educate parents about options so that they can make more informed decisions.

Today, the demand for childcare at all levels of society is far in excess of care that is available. In any economic system, when demand exceeds supply, quality problems surface. I think everyone agrees that there should be standards for our industry and ways to regulate it, but no one can agree on what those standards and regulations should be. In individual states where there have been tragedies with children, it is the parents of the children who have been harmed or killed that have been the driving force behind the recent laws that exist. The problem, in my opinion, is that no one has taken a more global view of how we should go about protecting children that are cared for in their homes. Should caregivers be licensed, and how? Does that impinge on parents’ rights in their own home? Should agencies be licensed, how and by whom?

I want to share in these few moments with you; legislation related to children, related to agencies referring professional nannies and with nannies themselves. Then I ‘d like to mention issues and projects that are in process which would enable us in the industry to establish standards to better demonstrate our expertise and our commitment to quality childcare. More than ever, I want to stress that it is important for each and everyone of you to get involved in influencing and raising the standards for our profession.

First, let me mention some of the new laws that are on the books as a result of a tragedy with a child. The caregiver is always the one to be faulted. It is my opinion, that at times parents should also share responsibility, because after all if the relationship between caregiver and parent is not a partnership than what is?

Some of the LAWS:

Kieren’s Law, a New York law allows parents to have access to police and DMV records of potential caregivers of their children. Nannies can also voluntarily register with the state. Many parents do not know that it exists.

Megan’s Law is a federal law requiring law enforcement personnel to advise people in a neighborhood when a sex offender is residing in their neighborhood. There is no standard way for notification to occur. .

Vinnie’s Law in New Jersey prohibits unaccompanied children to take part in door to door peddling

Jeremy and Jennifer Law in Florida makes it illegal for day care centers and other child care facility to misrepresent their credentials and/or the number of children they care for.

Agency Licensing

It may be surprising to you that only eight states require licensing of nanny agencies. They are Connecticut, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Oregon and Massachusetts. In Massachusetts licensing is by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development under Massachusetts General Law Chapter 140 sections 46A to 46R. We are under the "Employment Agencies Section" and interestingly; we are lumped in with modeling agencies and theatrical agents. (Discuss steps of Massachusetts licensing)

This year in the legislative session that ended in July, Rep Marie Parente from Brockton and others sponsored a bill to regulate the au pair agencies, and at the last moment, added the nanny agencies into the legislation. Others and myself spent countless hours before members of the Dept of Health and Human Services explaining the differences between both the foreign au pair and a professional Nanny and the au pair organizations and nanny referral agencies. (Two of the eight au pair agencies went out of business this past year -Au Pair Homestay and Au Pair Intercultural). Last year the eight agencies placed 9,500 foreign au pairs in the United States.

Marie Parente’s bill died in Committee for two reasons. It was a very late filed bill (only three weeks before the end of the session) and the au pair organizations lobbied hard (with deep pockets) to dilute its impact. In fact, as a result of the changes that were made, Rep. Parente backed out as a sponsor of the bill. I understand that Rep Parente is already at work on a new bill, which she will file in the next session in January.

In an attempt to register the caregivers themselves, a California law established "Trust Line", a public education campaign to prevent Nanny/Baby Sitter Abuse (doesn’t it just get your blood boiling to see baby sitter and nanny in the same sentence).

The driving force for "Trust Line" was Mary Beth Phillips, a woman whose daughter was permanently blinded after being severely shaken by a neighbor’s nanny in 1983. It requires caregivers in California to register with the Dept of Justice that in turn conducts a fingerprint check and investigates the nanny for any disqualifying criminal convictions or substantiated child

abuse reports in California. A charitable arm of a life insurance company provided a grant for television and public radio public service announcements and posters as well as corporate fundraising and media campaigns. Since 1994 more than 30,000 applicants have been processed through Trust Line. The problem with the law is that while it "requires" all in-home caregivers to register, there is no consequence if the individual does not register. Trust Line only checks California offenses and an agency I spoke to in San Francisco that utilizes "Trust Line" as part of its screening process said that results often do not come back for six weeks. Although it’s a law, few agencies require Trust Line screening of its applicants, primarily because the screening they do exceed the requirements of "Trust Line."

My personal opinion is that putting into place a national "Trust Line" with enough funding to be sure that all parents know of it, as a screening resource will go farther than anything else in promoting the safety of children.

It is important for nannies to continue their education with programs such as this one at MCC, and other workshops and seminars that are available through organizations like the NAEYC. You can join professional organizations like International Nanny Association (INA) that has standards for Nannies and you can take the INA Nanny Certification exam that is in final revision stage. It consists of two separate exams that consist of 100 multiple-choice questions. To ensure fairness and accuracy, a scanner at INA will grade it. It will have to be administered with an assigned proctor such as a teacher. The value in the new test (the last one was scrapped) is that it is structured to give the caregiver an opportunity to learn and if the individual does not pass, he/she will receive a booklet of suggested reading material and/or a list of suggested classes. They will have the opportunity to take the test (the second version) a second time. It will be in field testing in a few months and is expected to be generally available in June1999 after the INA conference in Atlanta.

Lastly, there has been a great deal of talk about nanny cams, and the legality of them. Lewis Maltby a prominent civil rights attorney has said that parents using nanny cams are in violation of Federal Laws when SOUND is used in conjunction with video. It is against federal wiretapping laws. As reported in the Advocate, a newsletter for the nanny industry, this past year in New Jersey, the state court of appeals decided that evidence accumulated against a nanny via nanny cam, which included sound, can be used in court where she is being tried for abusing a child. Ironically, this could result in the nanny being prosecuted in state court while the parents could be prosecuted in federal court. There will more cases as nanny cams become more available. My personal belief is that nanny cams are ridiculous. If a parent is that nervous about leaving their child in the care of someone that they have to resort to a nanny cam, then they have hired the wrong person and shouldn’t go to work.

What can agencies do? We can belong to professional organizations, and establish local chapters of agencies sharing ideas and working together to better the industry. Here in Massachusetts, more than in any other state, there is cooperation among competing agencies. We need to be vocal about who we are and submit press releases and letters to the editor of publications. This past year I had a letter on the Globe Editorial page and was quoted in the NY Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Globe as well as many other local publications. The BBC came into my living room twice last year for interviews regarding the Woodward case. Channel 4, 5 and 7 TV also sent crews into our office on the issue of the Eappen tragedy and nanny cams and two local radio stations interviewed me regarding the issue. You may think it’s glamorous…it’s not. This all takes time away from our business, but it was important to differentiate nanny agencies and professional nannies from the au pair media blitz.  

It’s only a matter of time before individual states come up with their own regulations. INA has recently allocated funds to hire an advocate (lobbyist) effective January 1999 that will be a presence for the industry in Washington. Another prime responsibility for the advocate is to work with INA in choosing a state, probably Maryland, that at present has no licensing requirements, and to proactively come up with a model acceptable to the industry which can be replicated across the country in individual states.

Another "tool" for screening that should be available to agencies is information in the national child abuse registry. We need to be able to get access to this resource.

TRUST and COMMUNICATION, that’s what it’s all about, i.e., trust between parents and Nannies, trust between children and Nannies, trust between parents and agency and trust between Nannies and agency.

So, please become involved when issues are brought to your attention, through the media, or school, and be willing to call and write your local congressmen. Stand up and be counted. The names of congressmen are on the Commonwealth of Mass web site (www.state.ma.us). I have a list of legislators that I brought with me, but it will be changing of course, after the elections in a few weeks.

When you are working with an established professional agency, please understand and recognize the tremendous amount of work that is involved in a successful referral. Working with four agencies in the same geographical area is ludicrous and will only serve to unnerve your references when they receive four calls. Instead chose one or two and work responsively, openly and honestly with both.

To be successful as a nanny, you have to feel passionately about children, families and the in-home child care profession.