Child Care Centers and ADA

After looking into the ADA connection with education I was able to find information about how the Americans with Disabilities Act is related to child care. The entire Act is quite a read (http://www.ada.gov/pubs/adastatute08.htm), but I found parts that seemed to be the most related to child care and the inclusion of children with disabilities.

The Act is split up into many parts, but I found that Title II and Title III are the most closely related to what I am looking for. Title II concerns public services. Many child care facilities receive services from government agencies and must comply with title II, as they are public services. There are also many private child care centers. These centers range from small home-based centers to private day cares with more than 1,000 centers in the nation. These child care centers all need to comply with Title III, including Public Accommodations and Services Operated by Private Entities. 

Americans with DIsabilities Act (ADA)

     While in a class about Special Education at the University of Cincinnati in 2009 I learned about the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990, Amended 2008). While learning about this Act, we mostly talked about ADA and the relation to employment and public education. After looking at the Americans with Disabilities Act web page, www.eeoc.gov, I can tell that there are many other federal agencies with ADA responsibilities. These include Employment
, Public Transportation
, Telephone Relay Service, Proposed Design Guidelines, Education
,Health Care
, Labor
, Housing
, Parks and Recreation, and Agriculture
.

     If I look into the connection that the ADA has with education I think I may be able to find more information. I would like to know what the Americans with Disabilities Act does to support children with disabilities in the relation to child care.

Getting Started

       Although there are many issues that effect families in school situations, I would like to investigate the issue of children with disabilities in childcare. Many children spend much of their time in childcare. Children may be in before and after school childcare. Other children may not be old enough for school, but are still in an educational child care centers from ages 0-5. In the summer many children attend all day child care centers while their guardians are at work.

      In schools there are many programs that are made to accommodate children with disabilities. Are there the same types of programs in childcare centers? Where do parents send their children if the parents can not stay home?

      I would also like to look at cases where children have been rejected from childcare due to disabilities. I would like to know if this is a common occurrence and how the child care centers justify their decisions.