Testimony to Senate Health & Human Services Committee For SB 1269
My name is Cody Summerville. I am graduate student in early childhood education at The University of Texas at Austin, and teach in a center that serves children eighteen months to six-years old. There are many people who deeply care about our state’s youngest children who were unable to make it today. I will be sharing some of their statements.
Attached you will find a news article that demonstrate how unsafe conditions for children currently are within existing ratio standards. In this instance, a child actually wandered out of the center and faced serious danger. This school is in Senator Campbell’s district. If ratios and group sizes were at reasonable levels, incidents like this one may not occur.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends ratios lower than those currently allowed by Child Care Licensing, and the Texas Pediatric Society, which is the Texas Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, is in support of this bill. Dr. Vaishalee Patil, a pediatrician from a practice in Senator Campbell's district writes:
"I am a strong supporter of a smaller child to provider ratio in childcare facilities. Higher ratios may result in children not receiving one on one care, which may in turn affect their intellectual and motor development. Higher children to caregiver ratios also increase chances of illness and injury in daycares. Therefore, I consider this bill vital to the safety of children.”