Poster #97 - A National Review of Center Based Childcare Licensing Regulations on Time-Out

• In Event: Poster Session 06

Abstract

Introduction
State-level childcare licensing regulations stipulate the parameters of program operations. In many states, these include discipline strategies such as time-out. Since its origins in behavioral psychology, “time-out from positive reinforcement” (Baer, 1961; Wolf et al., 1963), variations in implementation have emerged, along with a body of research describing effective elements of time-out, which are listed in Table 1 (Corralejo et al., 2018; MacDonough and Forehand, 1973)
Time-out has also emerged as a discipline strategy used in early care and education programs (ECE). ECE programming is governed by state-level licensing regulations but there is no data onhow these regulations address time-out.
Thus, the study’s research questions:
Is time-out specified in state licensing regulations? If yes,
To what extent are the specifications consistent with research-based parameters?
Methods
We utilized a qualitative content analysis approach (Krippendorff, 2018) to evaluate state-level childcare licensing regulations in all 50 states and the District of Columbia for content on time-out. Licensing regulations were retrieved from the Office of Child Care’s National Database of (https://childcareta.acf.hhs.gov/licensing), augmented by a Google search, only coding documents that were identified as codified legislative rules. Using a lexical search of terms relating to time-out, we identified relevant policy text, read the corresponding sections, excerpted and coded text based on the eight research-based parameters. Several states prohibit isolation without addressing time-out requirements, and thus were not included in this analysis.
Results
Only 33 of the 51 states provide guidance on time-out in their licensing regulations. The parameters addressed in each state’s regulations are listed in Table 2. Of these, the most frequently addressed parameters were requirements related to the location/supervision of the time-out, in 29 states, and the duration of time-out, present in 20 states. Eight states prohibit isolation in their time-out regulations.

Discussion
These findings present many policy and practice challenges. In general, the state level center based childcare licensing regulations on time-out are not grounded in data based strategies or the data based strategies are misapplied.
For instance, one of the most commonly addressed dimensions in the time-out protocol guidance is the length of time of the time out. However, in several cases the length of time is based on the child’s age with minutes per year, a convention without any evidence to support its use (Corralejo et al., 2018). Other evidence based time-out elements included location specification and warnings. Interestingly, the six states that specify time-out schedules recommended not using time out consistently, but as a last resort - a schedule that has been shown to actually increase behavioral infractions.
These findings point to a need to support states in recrafting their licensing regulations regarding time-out as a behavioral management strategy. With more strategic and appropriate use, time-out can lead to better behavior management on the part of children, thus decreasing the behaviors in children that can lead to more extreme exclusionary disciplinary teacher responses.

Authors

• Martha J Buell, University of Delaware
  Presenting Author

• Stephanie Kuntz

• Rachel Fidel