[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 81 (Tuesday, June 2, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H6034-H6036]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     ANTHONY DeJUAN BOATWRIGHT ACT

  Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill 
(H.R. 1662) to amend the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 
1990 to require child care providers to provide to parents information 
regarding whether such providers carry current liability insurance.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 1662

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Anthony DeJuan Boatwright 
     Act''.

     SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS.

       Section 658e(c)(2) of the Child Care and Development Block 
     Grant Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 9858c(c)(2)) is amended--
       (1) in subparagraph (E)(i) by adding at the end the 
     following: ``The State shall include as part of its 
     regulatory process for issuance and renewal of licenses to 
     providers of child care services, a recommendation to each 
     provider that it carry current liability insurance covering 
     the operation of its child care business.'', and
       (2) in subparagraph (F)--
       (A) in clause (ii) by striking ``and'' at the end,
       (B) in clause (iii) by striking the period at the end and 
     inserting a semicolon,
       (C) by inserting after clause (iii) the following:
       ``(iv) a requirement that each licensed child care 
     provider--

       ``(I) post publicly and conspicuously in the service area 
     of its premises a notice specifying whether or not such 
     provider carries current liability insurance covering the 
     operation of its child care business;
       ``(II) provide to parents of children to whom it provides 
     child care services a written notice stating whether or not 
     such provider carries current liability insurance covering 
     the operation of its child care business, including the 
     amount of any such coverage;
       ``(III) obtain the signature of at least 1 parent of each 
     such child on such written notice acknowledging that such 
     parent has received such notice; and
       ``(IV) maintain such notice (or a copy of such notice) as 
     signed by such parents (or a copy of the signed notice) in 
     such provider's records during the period in which the child 
     receives such services.'', and

       (D) in the last sentence by inserting ``clauses (i), (ii), 
     or (iii) of'' after ``Nothing in''.

     SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.

       This Act and the amendments made by this Act shall take 
     effect on October 1 of the 1st fiscal year that begins more 
     than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Tonko) and the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Petri) each will 
control 20 minutes. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York.


                             General Leave

  Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I request 5 legislative days during which 
Members may revise and extend and insert extraneous material on H.R. 
1662 into the Record.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from New York?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. TONKO. I yield myself as much time, Mr. Speaker, as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1662, which amends the 
Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 to require child 
care providers to provide information regarding whether such providers 
carry current liability insurance. Working parents depend on child care 
so they can earn an income needed to support their families, as well as 
ensure that their children are well cared for in a safe environment 
while they are working. As such, child care is an integral part of the 
daily routine for millions of American families with young children.
  Nearly 12 million children under 5 years of age are regularly in 
child care settings. Research clearly shows us that high quality child 
care has a lasting impact on a child's development and well-being. 
Children in poor quality child care miss a crucial early learning 
opportunity and are more likely to arrive at kindergarten unprepared 
and unable to succeed in school. As a country, we need to be doing much 
more to invest in and support high quality child care programs so that 
children have the best opportunity to develop.
  Back in 2001, Anthony DeJuan Boatwright's mother, Jacqueline 
Boatwright, placed her child in child care so that she could work to 
improve her and her son's life. She understood the child care program 
market. She shopped around and found a child care center. It was 
licensed by the State. It was clean, and it complied with Federal 
regulations under the Child Care Development Block Grant Act governing 
such items as the prevention and control of infectious diseases, 
building safety, premises access, and safety training for staff. 
However, little Anthony nearly drowned and ended up on life support due 
to an oversight at the child day care center.

[[Page H6035]]

  Jackie Boatwright did not know that a child care program could take 
her money, harm her child, and escape punishment for their dire 
mistake.

                              {time}  1545

  Because the childcare center had no liability insurance, the facility 
could not be financially responsible for any harm they could do. There 
wasn't a law, State or Federal, that required childcare centers to tell 
Ms. Boatwright either.
  The bill before us makes a small but, indeed, important amendment to 
current law. This bill would require each provider to openly post 
whether or not they have current liability insurance covering the 
operation of the childcare business, and it requires each provider to 
supply parents with a written notice stating whether or not the 
provider carries liability insurance, including the amount of such 
coverage.
  This legislation does not supersede any State regulations regarding 
facility licensure or insurance requirements. We are simply asking 
childcare providers to inform parents whether or not they hold 
liability insurance.
  As we move forward reauthorizing this program, we must consider 
policies that foster effective learning environments where children can 
obtain the cognitive, the social and the academic skills needed to 
succeed. And we must make sure that parents can feel secure in the 
knowledge that their children will be safe from harm while out of their 
care.
  This bill gives parents more information that they need to make 
educated decisions about daycare facilities. We must provide safe 
childcare programs for our children.
  I thank Representative Barrow for introducing this bill, and ask my 
colleagues to support the measure.
  I reserve the balance of my time, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. PETRI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise to discuss H.R. 1662, to amend the Child Care and 
Development Block Grant Act to require childcare providers to supply 
parents with information regarding whether such providers carry current 
liability insurance.
  The bill before us today requires that States, as part of their 
licensing requirements, recommend that childcare providers carry 
liability insurance. The bill also requires childcare providers to post 
whether or not they have current liability insurance covering the 
operation of their childcare businesses, and it requires providers to 
supply parents with a written notice stating whether or not the 
provider carries liability insurance.
  Today, many parents depend on childcare in order to continue to work 
to support their families. As such, childcare is an integral part of 
the daily routine for millions of American families with young 
children. A cost-efficient childcare is very important and, hopefully, 
this legislation, if it is passed, can be implemented without adding to 
the costs of these hardworking families.
  Asking providers to post information on their liability insurance may 
give additional peace of mind if it's properly implemented, at little 
or no additional cost to these families and, hopefully, will avoid 
tragedies such as the one that affected 14-month old Anthony DeJuan 
Boatwright, who fell, and the accident left him in a semi-comatose 
state and ventilator-dependent.
  I'd like to note that the bill before us does not reauthorize the 
Child Care and Development Block Grant Act. Hopefully, that bill will 
be brought before the Education and Labor Committee for reauthorization 
and full committee consideration during the 111th Session of Congress 
so that additional improvements can be made.
  As we move forward, we must ensure that Federal policy provides 
States maximum flexibility in developing childcare programs and 
policies, and provides parents with the ability to choose from a 
variety of options so that parents can decide the care best suited for 
their children.
  With those comments, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to recognize the gentleman from 
Georgia, sponsor of H.R. 1662, a very thoughtful piece for the children 
of this country, Mr. Barrow, for as much time as he may consume.
  Mr. BARROW. Mr. Speaker, back home in Augusta, Georgia, there's a 
little 9-year old boy by the name of Anthony DeJuan Boatwright, who's 
in a semi-comatose state and hooked up to a ventilator. He's been like 
this since September 9, 2001.
  Now, Juan, as he's called, wasn't born that way. He was the victim of 
a tragic and a preventable accident. The worst of it is if his mom had 
been given the information that this bill requires, then this accident 
never would have happened.
  Back in 2001, Juan's mother, Jacqueline Boatwright, was doing what 
millions of mothers and fathers all over the country do everyday. She 
dropped her child in daycare so that she could go to work to improve 
her family's life.
  Ms. Boatwright had done her homework. She was a sophisticated 
consumer and she shopped around and found a daycare center that she 
felt comfortable leaving her baby boy with. It was licensed by the 
State of Georgia. It was clean. And most importantly, it complied with 
all sorts of Federal regulations under the Child Care Development Block 
Grant Act that are designed to prevent and control infectious diseases, 
ensure building safety, premises access, and mental health and safety 
training for staff.
  But there was one thing that Jackie Boatwright did not know; that 
these folks could take her money, they could take her child, they could 
harm her child, and they would not be financially responsible for any 
of the harm that they do. That's because they had no liability 
insurance. There was no law that required them to have any liability 
insurance, and there wasn't even any law that required them to tell her 
that.
  Mr. Speaker, sure enough, that's just what happened. They ignored 
Juan long enough for him to find a bucket of water. Like every child 
that age, he had just enough strength to pull himself up to look over 
inside and to fall inside head first, but not enough upper body 
strength to push himself back up. It was a death trap, and little Juan 
fell into it. Well, Juan survived, but his life and that of his family 
have been ruined and changed forever.
  Now, this bill would have prevented all of this from happening. It 
wouldn't have prevented this from happening by adding a whole new 
bureaucracy of daycare inspectors to watch the watchers. It would have 
prevented this from happening in the least expensive and most efficient 
way possible, by simply requiring the daycare center to tell parents 
that they're willing to accept the moral responsibility of taking care 
of your children, but they won't accept any of the financial 
responsibility for failing to do so.
  That would have prevented this from happening, because if Jackie had 
known that she would have done what any other parent would do. She 
would have taken her business someplace else, someplace where they 
accept some degree of financial responsibility for the consequences of 
their negligence and incorporate that cost in the cost of doing 
business, just like every other financially responsible business does.
  Now, Jackie has tried to make something positive out of all this. 
She's determined to prevent this from happening to anybody else. Thanks 
to her efforts, financial responsibility disclosure laws are now on the 
books in four States: Georgia, California, Virginia and New Hampshire. 
This bill will close the gap by requiring financial responsibility 
disclosure for licensed daycare facilities in the rest of the country.
  In 2005, there were literally millions of kids in this country 
receiving daycare in facilities that are governed by the Child Care and 
Development Block Grant Act. Only a fraction of these kids live in the 
four States that have now stepped forward to enact financial 
responsibility disclosure laws. That means that millions of kids still 
go to licensed daycare facilities all around the country, today, where 
parents have no idea that their daycare centers can harm their child 
and accept none of the financial consequences for doing so.
  This bill will give the parents of these millions of children the 
same information that parents are entitled to as a matter of law in the 
States of Georgia, California, Virginia and New Hampshire. These 
parents have just as

[[Page H6036]]

much need to know about the financial responsibility of the folks they 
give their kids to, and this bill will give them the same right to that 
information.
  Now, this bill does not require any daycare facilities to actually go 
out and get liability insurance. It merely requires licensed daycare 
centers to tell parents whether or not they have insurance and, if so, 
how much. That's all. It then leaves it up to the parents to do what 
Jackie Boatwright would have done if only she had had this information, 
and that is to decide for themselves whether or not to leave their 
child with somebody who wants to accept the responsibility for caring 
for your child, wants to take your money for doing so, but is unable 
and unwilling to accept any of the financial consequences for failing 
to fulfill this responsibility.
  Indirectly, Mr. Speaker, this bill actually does more than that. By 
giving parents the information that they have a right to know, it 
places a powerful economic incentive on all daycare centers to do what 
all of the responsible daycare centers are already doing, and that is 
to assume the financial responsibility that goes along with the moral 
responsibility of taking care of children in their care and to 
incorporate the cost of that into the cost of doing business. Anyone 
who wants to do business without doing that will be at a competitive 
disadvantage compared to those who do.
  This approach gives the invisible hand of self interest the 
opportunity to do some good in the marketplace. Parents who place their 
children in daycare centers will have the information that they need in 
order to make the right choice for their children, and daycare centers 
that don't want to do the right thing by the children in their care 
will compete at a disadvantage compared to those who do.
  We have truth in labeling. We have truth in lending, and we have 
truth in advertising. This is truth in daycare. The States have led the 
way, and now it's time for the Federal Government to follow their lead. 
The families who end up being harmed because they are kept in the dark 
deserve to know the truth.
  Mr. PETRI. I have no further requests for time.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from the State of 
Georgia, Representative Barrow, for introducing H.R. 1662.
  Obviously, childcare decisions are major decisions for any family. 
And in addition to those cognitive and social and educational skills 
that are invested in our children, the sense of security and comfort 
that needs to be afforded the families who participate in these 
wonderful resources needs to be enhanced. And by simply and rightfully 
asking childcare providers to inform parents whether or not they hold 
liability insurance is a strengthener for any family and any children 
in our country.
  So, with all that being said, I strongly encourage our colleagues to 
support H.R. 1662.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the remainder of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 1662.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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