Legislation co-sponsored by Senator Michael Balboni to dramatically improve child care safety in New York State was recently signed into law by Governor George Pataki.

The "Quality Care and Protection Act: requires criminal background checks and better training for all daycare providers, increases oversight of daycare centers and strengthens enforcement actions taken against providers who do not comply.

"Many parents today must rely on outside child care and we must ensure that parents feel that the day care providers to whom they entrust their children are well trained and have passed a criminal history screening," said Senator Balboni. "This legislation sends a clear message that when it comes to providing safe, nurturing child care, New York demands the best."

Since 1995, New York has made the largest commitment in state history to New York's child care programs, including $808 million in total child care funding in the current state budget.

Under the provision of the enacted legislation, current training requirements for day care providers double from 15 to 30 hours and operators of home-based programs are required to receive basic health and safety training before they receive a license or registration. The new law also increases from 20 percent to 50 percent the number of registered day care programs inspected by the Office of Children and Family Services. Finally, the maximum fines against day care providers who violate statutory or regulatory requirements will double from $250 per day to $500 per day.

"This new law strengthens our efforts to enhance child care programs in New York State and helps working families by improving the quality of child care," said Senator Balboni.