Amendment removes regulations on baby sitters working from home

Megan Stratton gets most of her extra spending money from baby-sitting families in the East Lansing area, and, to make it easier on her clients, she sometimes allows parents to drop their children off at her apartment.

“They do it for simple reasons, like they are selling their house and they had a cleaning lady there and we needed to not be in the house, or (their mom) is on the way to work, and she’d drop them off for convenience,” Stratton said.

Under current state law, Stratton, a nursing senior, could be punished by the Michigan Department of Human Services, or DHS, for watching children in her home without a day care license.

But a new amendment on Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s desk, which passed unanimously in the Michigan House and Senate, would exclude baby-sitting from the state’s day care licensing laws.

“Basically, (the bill) says if you are baby-sitting, and it is not a (day care) business, then you are not required to be licensed,” said state Rep. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge.

Jones said the issue came up after the DHS accused a woman in Irving Township was of having an illegal day care because she watched her neighbors’ children without a day care license in the morning before the school bus came.

State Rep. Mark Meadows, D-East Lansing, said the amendment is common sense that was overlooked for too long.

“I don’t think the Legislature intended to punish circumstances where one neighbor is helping out another neighbor,” Meadows said. “There was a loophole that nobody recognized.”

The amendment specifies that an individual baby-sitting for another individual and uncompensated child care are not subject to the child care license act. Baby-sitting is defined as watching another’s child for less than $600 a year.

Colleen Steinman, spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services, said the $600 a year stipulation of baby-sitting covers incidents when children are going to the home of the caregiver.

This applies to student baby-sitters because they typically are not licensed and might help a family outside of that family’s home, said Lori Strom, coordinator of the MSU Family Resource Center, which connects East Lansing families to MSU student caregivers and baby sitters.

“In those circumstances when someone else is doing someone a favor, or when it is just a couple of hours instead of a full-day daycare service, I agree with the new law,” Strom said.

Jones said as long as baby sitters temporarily are watching children in their home, there would not be a reason for inspection from the DHS.

“A college student simply watching a child for a night once in a while would not be a license situation, however, if you opened up your home and you were going to do regular day care, then you would (need a) license to be legal,” Jones said.

Many baby-sitters just want to make the situation easier for their clients and this amendment makes that legal, Stratton said.

“It’s a relief that I wouldn’t get in trouble for offering to take care of someone’s children and making things easier for the parents.”