My daughter attended a cooperative preschool for four years. We had an amazing experience with the cooperative preschool model. My daughter learned so much there and was well-prepared for kindergarten, but I have to say that the real beneficiary of our experience was me (her mom). I learned a lifetime of lessons in that school about parenting and childhood development simply by watching and helping the wonderful teachers and working with other parents. I believe I would be a much less prepared and less informed parent had I not had the experience of working in my daughter's classroom alongside professional teachers. It has inspired me to become a teacher myself and taught me the importance of engaging in my daughter's education. So I am very disappointed to learn that the cooperative education model is in serious jeopardy because of proposed new regulations.

Parent cooperative preschools, which have existed for over 100 years, are placed in jeopardy in Virginia by the Proposed Amended Standards. Current Standards for Licensed Child Day Centers recognize the critical role of parent volunteers in the parent cooperative preschool model by including for cooperative parents an exception requiring limited training annually. This exception recognizes the unique role that parents hold in a cooperative preschool, as well as the intrinsic value of an early childhood education model premised on parent involvement.

The Proposed Amended Standards as drafted, however, undermine rather than support the cooperative preschool model by requiring cooperative parents to either:
(1) Complete the 36 training hours (16 orientation, 20 ongoing) required of professional staff, or 
(2) Remain in constant sight and sound supervision of a staff member.

These two alternatives fail to recognize that:
•Cooperative parents undergo the same background checks as staff;
•Cooperative parents assist professional staff in the classroom 1-2 days/month, for a total of 3-6
hours/month (thus required training hours could exceed the number of hours in class for the entire
year);
•Cooperative parents serve a unique position in the classroom, where they remain under the guidance
and supervision of professional staff but may at times not be in sight and sound supervision of staff.

These changes are unduly burdensome both to the cooperative parents who seek meaningful
engagement in their children’s educations and to the small cooperative preschools that rely on parent
engagement to survive.

To preserve the parent cooperative preschool in Virginia, the Proposed Amended Standards should be
revised to allow cooperative preschool parents to work in the classroom without sight and sound
supervision of a staff member provided that the parent:
(1)Satisfactorily completes the same background checks required of professional staff; and
(2)Completes a total of 4 hours of orientation and ongoing training annually.

I respectfully urge you to implement the above changes to the proposed regulations in order to
preserve the viability of traditional cooperative preschools.