A federal court has allowed a burdensome licensing requirement for child care workers to stand. In 2016, D.C.'s Office of the State Superintendent of Education passed a rule requiring all child care professionals to have a college degree. The rule—which applies to staff at day care centers and at some home-based child care operations—says workers must have at least an associate degree in a field related to early childhood education and that workers who already have a college degree in some other subject must complete early child education courses.
The education requirement was supposed to take effect in 2020, but has been postponed in part because of a lawsuit filed by two D.C. child care workers—Altagracia Sanchez and Dale Sorcher—and one parent, Jill Homan. Sanchez is an immigrant from the Dominican Republican who is licensed to watch children in her home and has a law degree from a school in her home country but no U.S. college degree. Sorcher teaches children ages zero to three at a child development center and has multiple college degrees but none in early childhood education. Sanchez, Sorcher, and Homan are represented by the Institute for Justice (IJ).
