Regulating child care quality

Child care quality depends on child care regulation as plants depend on wat er. An insufficient amount guarantees problems, but an excessive amount may also be problematic. The principal responsibility for child care regulatio n in the United States resides with state government officials, who must re gulate a highly diverse industry. Research shows that regulation promotes q uality but that trade-offs exist. Quality improvements that undermine avail ability or affordability should be evaluated with care. Also, regulatory en forcement deserves as much attention as regulatory standard setting. To imp rove child care regulation, state policymakers should consider eliminating some local regulations, regulating more family day care homes, upgrading te acher-training requirements, allocating more resources to regulatory enforc ement, and designing more effective enforcement strategies.