Anthony DeJuan Boatwright Act

ANTHONY DeJUAN BOATWRIGHT ACT -- (House of Representatives - October 29, 2007)

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Mr. BARROW. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, back home in Augusta, Georgia, there's a little 7 1/2 -year-old boy named Anthony DeJuan Boatwright, who is in a semicomatose state and hooked up to a ventilator. He wasn't born that way, but that is how he ended up. He ended up that way because of an accident, negligence, really, that never would have happened if his mother had been given the information that this bill requires.

Back in 2001, Juan's mother, Jacqueline Boatwright, was doing what millions of mothers all over the country do every day: she placed her child in day care so that she could work to improve her life and that of her child. She was a sophisticated consumer. She had done her homework and she shopped around and found a day care center. It was licensed by the State; it was clean and it complied with all sorts of Federal regulations under the Child Care Development Block Grant Act governing such things as the prevention and control of infectious diseases, building safety, premises access, and mental health and safety training for staff.

But there was one thing that Jackie Boatwright did not know: that these folks could take her money, they could take her child, they could harm her child, and they would not be financially responsible for any of the harm that they could do. That is because they had no liability insurance and there was no law, State or Federal, that required them to tell her that.

Mr. Speaker, sure enough, that is what happened. They ignored little Juan long enough for him to find a bucket of water. Like every child that age, he had just enough strength to pull himself up and to look over inside and to fall inside, head first, but not enough upper body strength to push or pull himself back up. It was a death trap, and little Juan fell into it. Well, Juan survived, but his life and that of his family have been ruined and changed forever.

This bill would have prevented all of this from happening. It would not have done it by creating a whole new bureaucracy of day care inspectors to watch the watchers. It would have done it in the least expensive and most efficient way possible, by simply requiring the day care center to tell Jackie Boatwright what they knew but did not tell her, that they were willing to accept the moral responsibility of taking care of her baby, but they were going to accept none of the financial responsibility for failing to do so.

That would have prevented this from happening, because that is all it would have taken to prevent this tragedy from happening. Because if Jackie had known that, she would have done what any other parent would do: she would have taken her business someplace else, someplace where they accept some degree of financial responsibility for the consequences of their negligence and incorporate the cost in the cost of doing business, just like every other financially responsible business does.

Jackie has tried to make something positive out of this. She has determined to prevent this from happening to anybody else. Thanks to her efforts, financial responsibility disclosure laws are now on the books in four States: Georgia, California, Virginia and New Hampshire. This bill will close the gap by requiring financial responsibility disclosure for licensed day care facilities in the rest of the country.

In 2005, there were literally millions of kids in this country receiving day care in facilities that are governed by the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act. Only a fraction of these kids live in the four States that have now stepped forward to enact financial responsibility disclosure laws. That means that millions of kids still go to licensed day care facilities all around the country today whose parents have no idea that their day care centers can harm their child and accept none of the financial consequences of doing so.

This bill will give the parents of these millions of children the same information that parents are entitled to as a matter of law in the States of Georgia, California, Virginia, and New Hampshire. These parents have just as much need to know about the financial responsibility of the folks they give their kids to, and this bill will give them the same information.

This bill does not require any day care facilities to go out and get liability insurance. It merely requires licensed day care centers to tell parents

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whether or not they have insurance, and, if so, how much. That is all. It then leaves it up to the parents to do what Jackie Boatwright would have done if only she had had this information, and that is to decide for themselves whether or not to leave their child with someone who wants to accept the responsibility for caring for your child, wants to take your money for doing so, but is unwilling and unable to accept any of the financial consequences for failing to fulfill this responsibility.

Indirectly, Mr. Speaker, this bill actually does more than that. By giving parents the information that they have a right to know, it places a powerful economic incentive on all day care centers to do what all of the responsible day care centers are already doing, and that is to assume the financial responsibility and to incorporate the costs of that into the cost of doing business that goes along with the moral responsibility to take care of the children in their care. Anyone who wants to do business without doing that will be at a competitive disadvantage compared to those who do.

This approach gives the invisible hand of self-interest the opportunity to do some good in the marketplace; the interests of day care centers to do the right thing or compete at a disadvantage compared to those who do, and the interests of parents in placing their children in day care centers that are ready, willing and able to do the right thing if and when they mess up.

We have truth in labeling; we have truth in lending and truth in advertising. This is truth in day care. The States have led the way, and now it is time for the Federal Government to follow their lead. The families that end up being harmed because they are kept in the dark deserve no less.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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