Some daycare directors have very strong, not always positive, feelings about visits from the Department of Health. After all, it’s the Department of Health that generally licenses daycares and what they say goes. The difficulty for some directors is accepting that different inspectors see things differently, and different inspectors can have very different personalities and expectations.

For example, there was a ladder attached to the wall of my rooftop play area. It lead to another higher section of the roof where the air conditioning unit was. The idea was for workmen to use the ladder to access to maintain the air conditioning unit. That was the plan, and the plan, to date, had worked just fine. All other parts of the rooftop play area had been fenced in and passed inspection many times.

The building had been inspected by the Fire Department, The Building Department and the Department of Health. I should mention that these inspections were regular, announced and unannounced and each time everyone said everything was in compliance. (That beautiful word all directors like to hear.)

One day, after 10 years of inspections, a new inspector showed up to look over the same territory. Ho-Hum. Imagine my surprise when the inspector pointed out that that ladder, the very one that so many of us had looked at over the years, was not properly guarded from use by the very children we were trying to protect. After all, from a child’s point-of-view, a ladder mounted to the side of the wall was just another plaything. We were not in compliance, we were given a 30-day period to correct the situation, and worst of all, we were living with a very dangerous situation. Until this violation could be corrected, in the interest of safety, we were not to use the rooftop.

It’s always good to have another set of eyes view what’s going on in childcare. For this reason alone, I am always grateful for the work inspectors do. Of course I’d like everything to be in compliance every time they visit because that makes me look good. But sometimes you can’t see the tree for the forest. The positive interaction between regulatory agencies and childcare professionals can only bring positive results for all concerned.

Inspectors are here to protect children. That’s true. They are also here to use their expertise to protect teachers and administrators as well. What if…that ladder had been discovered by a child who got to the top of the higher, unfenced rooftop before the teacher could get to him?