I know there will be a lot of providers who decide to just continue business as usual and take their chances...but I am not one of them. I am not willing to gamble my families entire financial stability if there is even a 1% chance that someone will report me for being over my numbers and being slapped with a $250, 000 fine!!! I have two young kids of my own and 5 daycare kids...I have always wondered if someone would report me thinking I am over limit, but I have never worried because I know I am not. With this new law, I will be over limit and the risk is way too huge. Once my son turns 6 in May, I could have 4 daycare kids...and maybe like Playfelt said, I could join an agency (shudder..groan...gr rrr) to get the 6 kid limit and have one kid through them...that would put me almost at what I am now (just minus the money the agency scoops from that one child). I could probably make up that difference by raising my rates by $5 per child per day for under 2 spots. BUT, the problem will be finding kids over 2 for three of my spaces. I might have to suck it up and provide before and after care...I don't know.
I am not sure about a rally...I worry that it will come across as us providers not wanting to improve the safety of the kids in daycare.