My area of concern has to do with training.  Currently, the regulations require parents in cooperative preschools to have 4 hours of training annually.  The proposed change to the regs (22VAC40-185-245) requires that all parents “who are counted in staff ratios” (which now specifically includes parents in co-ops) have 20 hours of annual training, including CPR and first aid certification. This is an unreasonable expectation of preschool parents in terms of time and expense.  To avoid having parents counted in the ratio (to keep them from having to meet the training requirement), we’d have to have to hire an additional staff person to be in the classroom every day, which would cause our tuition to rise to an untenable level.  

There are many long-term successful cooperative preschools in Virginia.  The cooperative preschool model is based on parent participation.  In our case, we have one paid (educated, trained, professional) teacher in the classroom with three parent helpers and 20 children (ratio of 5:1).  Having parents as classroom aides is common among cooperatives.

The cooperative preschool model has many benefits including low tuition (because the parents serve as unpaid classroom aides) and genuine parental involvement in children’s early education (something virtually everyone acknowledges is important).  When parents are involved in their child’s education early on, they generally continue to be involved.  In my experience many of the parent leaders at the elementary, middle, and high schools in our area started out in cooperative preschools. To not have cooperatives as an option for early education would ultimately impact educational involvement and leadership in the entire community.

I ask that VDSS to remove the language “who are not considered staff” from section 22VAC40-185-245 describing the required training for cooperative preschool parents.