Would you send your child to a day care for sick children?

Devita Douglas wants to open a sick-child care center for working parents who usually need to work from home — or take off work for the day — when a child is ill.

But state law currently doesn’t allow for this type of facility.

Ohio Rep. Wes Retherford, R-Hamilton, hopes House Bill 77, which had its first committee hearing on Tuesday, will change that. It will allow Douglas, who has a background in health care administration, to operate her business, which she hopes to open multiple locations in Butler County or across the state if the bill passes.

“It’s like a panacea to many parents’ nightmares when they have sick kids,” said Douglas, of Hamilton, who planned to open a facility in Fairfield recently but was told she wasn’t allowed. “They would have a back-up plan available when their child can’t go to school.”

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She said it would also prevent a sick child from being sent to a daycare or a school, and there are cases where parents have lost jobs caring for a sick child.

Retherford said his bill, which was also introduced at the end of the previous General Assembly session, is “a multifaceted piece of legislation which I believe serves a need that every part of our state has.”

“This need is something different from the service that hospitals provide as it is not a treatment facility,” he said.

The bill would allow the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to issue a license so privately funded sick-child care centers can operate.

The centers would provide child care, including administering to the needs of school-age children during school hours, for children with short-term illnesses or other medical conditions on a temporary, irregular basis.

Douglas said there would be nurses employed at the center, which would have a monthly membership fee, a registration fee and a co-pay when the service is used.

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Retherford testified on Tuesday before the Ohio House Economic Development, Commerce, and Labor on his bill. He said a person, organization or agency establishing a sick-child care center would need, among other things, to include a site plan proposal, the maximum number of children to be served at one time and the number of adults caring for the children. A four-to-one child to staff member ratio must be in place, he said.

The bill also requires a physician be named as a medical director, and certified nurse practitioner, registered nurse or a licensed practical nurse be on the premises whenever children are in care on the premises.

“It is my belief that House Bill 77 will greatly benefit the lives of many families across Ohio and reduce and eliminate the spread of diseases from the number of sick kids who parents allow them to go to school or daycare, which in turn affects other families,” Retherford said.

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