Rapid City ordinances are stricter than state law for home-based day cares, but city officials said the rules here are rarely enforced.
People who open home-based day cares for seven to 12 children in Rapid City must follow certain safety ordinances but are not required to be licensed or registered and are not required to prove to the city that their home is safe before opening their business.
It is also unlikely any code enforcement officer would ever come to check unless a complaint is made.
"Most of our code enforcement is primarily based on complaints," said Marcia Elkins, director of growth management, the department that handles code enforcement.
She said it has been several years since the city has received a complaint about a day care.
Rapid City has no ordinances addressing home-based day cares with fewer than seven children.
Under city ordinance, home-based day cares with between seven and 12 children must follow rules with regard to:
* The number and size of exits and rescue windows and doors.
* Latches on doors, closets, refrigerators and freezers.
* Electrical wiring and room heaters.
* Storage of firearms, flammable materials and sharp objects.
* Fire barriers and the flammability of wall finishes.
* Smoke detectors and fire extinguishers.
* Water supply.
* Amount of play area available per child.
* Safety of parking and unloading areas.
* Compliance with zoning codes.
People who operate these day cares also are required by the city to be able to show proof of a "self-screening" against the state Central Registry for Child Abuse Information, and to be able to show the results of a criminal records history conducted by Rapid City police. Elkins said the ordinance was last updated in 1991 and said, "I don't know if it's even happening anymore, if they're routinely going through this process."
Mayor Alan Hanks said the checks do happen.
"Our police department does background checks on all those folks to make sure we don't have someone in the home that shouldn't be around kids," Hanks said.
Rapid City Police Captain Ed Hofkamp said compliance officers in his department perform background and sex-offender checks on between five and 10 people a year who work in home-based day cares here that are not registered with the state. Those include people 18 and older who live in a home being used as a day care. Hofkamp said the department didn't know how many day cares that might represent.
Day cares with 13 or more children must be licensed and checked out by the state. State law says it is optional for day cares with 12 or fewer children to register. Those who voluntarily register are screened by the state for reports of abuse and neglect.
Rapid City's ordinance was last updated when the fire department wanted stricter rules about the size of windows in basements, Elkins said.
She described the rules as "pretty common sense" and said as long as day care operators comply with those rules, they don't have to apply for any sort of permit to run their business.
Hanks, who in 2005 as a state representative voted in favor of mandatory licensing for day cares with more than six children, said the Rapid City rules are strict enough without requiring those businesses to be state licensed.
"My concern would be with overregulation," Hanks said, because he said it could lead to day care becoming less affordable or accessible.
Even though there isn't any way to know if all providers are following city ordinance, Hanks trusts the system.
"There has to be some responsibility on behalf of the person who's providing that care to educate themselves on what those rules are," he said. "I think Rapid City's doing just fine. We haven't had any reports of abuse. We haven't had any reports of incidents."
Check out the rules
Day care providers, and parents who want to check on the rules their provider should be following, can find the text of Rapid City's day care ordinance online through www.rcgov.org
From the home page, click on "municipal codes." The day care code is Chapter 8.04.
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