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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2017 - 2018
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | June 1, 2017 02:17 PM |
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| From: | Representative Isabella V. Fitzgerald |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Environmental Contamination Assessments of Child Day Care Centers |
| In the near future, I will introduce a package of legislation that would require mandatory environmental contamination assessments to be conducted for certain existing and prospective child day care center sites in Pennsylvania. Under current Pennsylvania law, individuals who wish to operate a child day care center are not required to have an environmental contamination assessment conducted on the location for which they seek to operate. I learned of this fact following a recent incident in my district where a prospective child day care operator was slated to move into a facility that had formerly served as a dry cleaner. Fortunately it was discovered, albeit at the eleventh hour, that the facility had not been adequately remediated and the move did not proceed forward as planned. It is for this reason that I intend to introduce two bills modeled slightly after legislation enacted into law in New Jersey in 2007 concerning this very subject. The first measure would require certain prospective and current child day care center operators to obtain a letter of "prior use" from the municipality where the building or structure that will be used as a child day care center is sited. In addition, upon the determination that the previous use of a site is classified as a "high hazard" business, the current or prospective child day care owner would be required to obtain a mandatory environmental contamination assessment and remediation certification from both the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) prior to renewing and/or being issued a license with the Department of Human Services (DHS) to operate a child day care center. This measure also proposes to create the Child Day Care Center Grant program, which will assist DOH, DEP, and DHS with offsetting any costs associated with administering this Act. The second measure proposes to amend the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act to prescribe that funds allocated to the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund are also to be expended for the purpose of providing grants through the newly established Child Day Care Center Grant Program. Therefore, if you recognize the importance of ensuring the health and safety of our children, I ask that you please join me in co-sponsoring both of these critically important pieces of legislation. |
Document #1
| Description: | Requires certain prospective and current child day care center operators to obtain a letter of "prior use" from the municipality where the building or structure that will be used as a child day care center is sited. | |
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Document #2
| Description: | Amends the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act to prescribe that funds allocated to the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund are also to be expended for the purpose of providing grants through the newly established Child Day Care Center Grant Program. |
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