Surprise Day-Care Home Inspections OKd

California officials may conduct surprise inspections of private homes used as day-care centers without obtaining warrants, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday in San Francisco.

However, the appellate court also directed the state Department of Social Services--the agency that oversees licensing and supervision of the 33,000 day-care homes in California--to tighten its regulations on inspections.

Writing the unanimous opinion for the three-judge panel, Judge Warren J. Ferguson said that the key issue is whether California’s statutes allowing inspections without warrants violate the constitutional protection against unreasonable searches. And the court concluded that “the vital government interest in protection of children furthered by warrantless inspections is paramount.”

The opinion pointed out that family day-care homes are “very different” from institutional day-care centers, which usually have large numbers of children.

Under California’s system, a private residence may be licensed to provide care for up to six children if there is a single operator present. The homes may take in as many as 12 youngsters if there is a second adult involved in supervising the children.

These homes provide care on a regular basis for less than 24 hours a day. Usually, children are at the homes during the day hours while their parents work, a state official said.

Elaborating on the basic grounds for Thursday’s ruling, Ferguson wrote:

“The majority of the children receiving care in family day-care homes are under 5 years of age, and some are as young as 6 days old. The California Legislature was plainly aware that such children, away from their parents, need the special protection of the state.”

In Sacramento, Department of Social Services spokesman Jack Germain said: “This case has been of great concern to us because we have a responsibility to respond when a complaint of child abuse, or a complaint of any kind, is brought to us.”

“This really is a major victory for our side in the effort to make these places as safe as possible for children,” said Deputy Atty. Gen. Stephanie Wald, who represented the state agency in the case.

Wald said that the case originated in 1981 when two women and an association of day-care home operators in San Mateo County filed a lawsuit challenging the right of state inspectors to enter the homes without warrants.

U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel in San Francisco agreed with the operators and issued an injunction against state officials. Patel’s order allowed a day-care home operator to refuse admittance to inspectors until they had a judge’s approval.

In overturning Patel’s ruling, the appellate court also directed state inspection officials to come up with regulations that would limit the area of warrantless inspections to that part of a home in which children are cared for and to limit the time of such inspections to when children are present.

“It will be very easy to draft the regulations that the appellate court has suggested,” Wald said, “and I’m sure that will be done swiftly.”

Attorneys representing the San Mateo group could not be reached for comment on the ruling.