“These are just kids that wait for the bus every morning,” he said. “This is not a day care.”
Each day before the school bus comes to pick up the neighborhood’schildren, Lisa Snyder did a favor for three of her fellow moms,welcoming their children into her home for about an hour before theyleft for school.
Regulators who oversee childcare, however, don’t see it as charity. Days after the start of the newschool year, Snyder received a letter from the Michigan Department of Human Services warning her that if she continued, she’d be violating a law aimed at the operators of unlicensed day care centers.
“Iwas freaked out. I was blown away,” she said. “I got on the phoneimmediately, called my husband, then I called all the girls” — that is,the mothers whose kids she watches — “every one of them.”
Snyder’s predicament has led to a debate in Michigan about whether alaw that says no one may care for unrelated children in their home formore than four weeks each calendar year unless they are licensedday-care providers needs to be changed. It also has irked parents whosay they depend on such friendly offers to help them balance work andfamily.