RICHMOND, Va. -- As Virginia's department of social services is trying to finalize its child care plan, several parents and child care workers went to a Monday night hearing to voice their support for where federal money should go for child care.
Positions ranged from increasing safety in child care, more affordable child care, and an increase in hourly wage for child care workers.
Specifically workers are asking for the same wage that fast food workers in New York are now getting, $15 an hour.
The grandfather of one-year-old Joseph Allen, who died in a fire at an unlicensed Chesterfield at-home daycare last year, spoke at the hearing. "We urge the department to review license exemptions as well as licensing threshold to determine whether state policies really protect children," Herman Allen said.
Jannell Lankford, an extended day teacher said she believes child care workers deserve higher wages.
"So you can`t pay be 15 dollars an hour but I have to teach someone`s child, nurse someone`s child, love somebody`s child, discipline someone`s child, and pretty much be a support system to the parent when they can`t deal with their own child," Lankford said.
Monday nights public hearing was one of four taking place across the state. Virginia must submit its plan to the federal government by March 1, 2016.
