Times Staff Report

SOUTH HOLLAND | A meeting Friday between village officials and a home daycare provider yielded a change to an ordinance that regulates the service.

Home daycare providers may now employ one person who is not a resident of the home to ensure compliance with minimum staffing levels, South Holland Village Administrator J. Wynsma said.

An ordinance approved in June stipulated that because home-based businesses are not supposed to be commercial in nature, employees must reside at the address.

At a Village Board meeting Monday, the owner and operator of the Shackelford Day Care Center said the ordinance had negatively impacted her ability to do business.

"If we don't have a family member who can be an employee we're left in a bind, especially when you have doctor's appointments," Gunda Shackelford said in an interview.

Village officials were also able to clear up a misunderstanding that arose from the ordinance limiting a home day-care center to caring for a maximum of eight children.

Shackelford, who is licensed by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to support 12 children, said her certification allows for eight children between the age of six weeks and 4 years old who can attend all day, and for four children who can attend before and after school.

However, South Holland's ordinance does not affect home daycare providers who care for children after school or at night.

"It's a distinction the state makes," Wynsma said, adding that of the 40 home daycare providers in the village, about three care for more than five children. "South Holland has a separate category for after-school care, and the misunderstanding came from adding the two numbers together."

The ordinance, which also doubled the licensing fee to $250, came about after village inspections found unhealthy and unsafe conditions at some providers.

One home had 40 children and another had 26, Wynsma said.

"This is not only unsafe, but the necessary volume of traffic for that many children turns neighborhoods into commercial districts," Wynsma said. "It is our challenge to balance the interests of the home daycare provider, with the health and safety of the children and the interests of the other residents in the neighborhood."

-- Times correspondent Bob Moulesong and Illinois Editor Chris Keller contributed to this report.