The proposed new training requirements for parents who volunteer at cooperative preschools are so burdensome that they will doom the traditional cooperative preschool model. It is not feasible to ask parents of young children to undergo 16 hours of orientation training and 20 hours of annual training.

I ask that the total number of training hours (both orientation and ongoing, collectively) for cooperative preschool parents be limited to the current 4 hours. Please remove the language "who are not considered staff" from section 22VAC40-185-245C describing the required annual training for cooperative preschool parents. Please include an exception for cooperative preschool parents in the new orientation training section 22VAC40-185-240.

Cooperative preschools have been a valued early education option in Virginia for decades. Our school, Sleepy Hollow Preschool, was established in 1949. For nearly 70 years we have kept the traditional cooperative preschool model to benefit children and families. Since parents serve as unpaid classroom aides we are able to maintain low tuition cost while providing deep, meaningful parents involvement in children’s early education.

In order to comply with the new regulations, cooperative preschools would have to hire aides so that parents would not be counted in staff ratios. This would not only reduce the significance of parents' roles in the classroom, but would also raise tuition so significantly that many families could be left without any affordable preschool options. 

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

Our family has been a part of the Sleepy Hollow Preschool family for 5 years now. I use the word family to describe our wonderful school because it has become just that. The staff have helped up through struggles at home, both behaviorally and developmentally, and provided us with an unforeseeable amount of hope for our children’s futures. Personally, I have served on the board for our school for the past 4 years, seeing how hard our staff works to help our students be their best selves. I am not sure that I could say the same about a school that our children would just be dropped off and picked up from. Interacting with the staff on a regular basis by working in the class rooms has enhanced my parenting skills and allowed me to be an integral part of my children’s early learning experience. Please, do not place cooperative preschools into the same category as traditional preschools. These schools need to stay in business to help our children and communities grow and thrive.  

I implore you to reevaluate these proposed changes and to not include cooperative preschools in them. I can’t imagine having sent my children to a different kind of early childhood center and would like other families to have the same opportunities we have.