781-570 D. Children five years of age and older may have access to and may self-administer … hand soap… labeled "Keep out of reach of children," provided that the label does not contain other warnings listed in 8VAC20-781-220 A and is used under adult supervision. 

There are several reasons to request deleting hand soap from this standard.

1. Children are allowed to go to the restroom unattended. But if the sink for handwashing is located in that same room, and not in the classroom, the teacher will have to take the entire class (or at least enough to maintain ratios) to be with the child to administer the soap or supervise the child putting soap on his hands.

2. Children are required to wash their hands every time they come into contact with body fluids. Requiring educators to stop their activity and go to the sink to supervise or administer the hand soap every time that a child uses a Kleenex or goes to the toilet will have a huge impact as the education of other children in the classroom will be disrupted.

(Visualize the teachers who are doing intervention between two 2-year-olds, or teaching a new song, or sitting on the floor with children around and a child on her lap during story time, or helping an after school child with that difficult homework that he doesn’t want to do, and all of these teachers having to stop, go to the sink wherever it is located, and administer hand soap or supervise a child using hand soap.)

3. Children who are capable of washing their hands are usually permitted to do so without supervision or an adult administering the hand soap in homes and most other environments.

4. While it appears to be a safety concern, how many incidents of children being harmed by ingesting liquid hand soap have actually been reported in a childcare setting?