Until now, there has been a robust system of cooperative preschools in Virginia that permit parents to contribute to "staffing" level of preschools by volunteering to assist in the classroom.  Parents take turns donating their time, so as to be involved in the early school years of their children and to reduce the costs of preschool (because less staff has to be hired for classes).  The proposed changes, however, will not permit these parents to continue to be treated as volunteers if they are are being counted on to provide coverage in classrooms.  Each parent, although they likely only volunteer one day a month (or less) in the classroom, will now be required to have all of the regular training of full-time preschool teachers.  (And go from 4 hours a year to 20 hours a year in training.)  That is simply impossible for most parents, whether they work inthe home or out of the home.  Because volunteering parents without that training cannot be used to provide (even partial) coverage for classrooms, all cooperative preschools will have to hire staff to replace cooperative parents, and use parents as redundant volunteers, which is utterly contrary to the point of the model.  Please consider exempting cooperative/volunteer parents from the staff training requirements, or else find a "middle-ground" where volunteer parents without full staff training (but full volunteer training) may count for, say, one-half of a staff person for staff-student ratio purposes.  Thank you.