Hawai'i's childcare system is ranked 14th in a national survey that found many states deficient in their regulation and oversight of childcare centers.

While some states do not even require criminal background checks for childcare providers, Hawai'i's licensed daycare centers are inspected regularly to make sure they have adequate staff and space and meet health and environmental standards.

"We do have some very good licensing regulations," said Liz Chun, executive director of the Good Beginnings Alliance. Still improvements need to be made so children are better prepared to enter kindergarten, Chun added.

As of 2005, 107 of Hawai'i's 475 licensed centers had nationally accredited programs — 22.5 percent compared with 19 percent in 2004.

"Having almost a quarter of your sites accredited is very good if you look at other states," Chun said.

The survey, released today by the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, found many states are distressingly lax when it comes to making sure centers meet basic health and safety standards.

The agency gave its lowest marks to Idaho and Louisiana and its highest grade to the system run by the U.S. military.

Among the common problems in the states are infrequent inspections, deficient safety requirements, and low hiring standards — including lack of full criminal background checks — for center employees.

"State childcare standards and oversight in this nation are not protecting our children and are not preparing them for success in school," said Linda Smith, executive director of the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies.

She urged action by Congress and state legislatures. An estimated 12 million children under age 5 are in nonparental childcare each week.

The association reviewed policies and regulations for all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the Defense Department, which ranked a decisive No. 1 overall and led both subcategories — one measuring standards that are in place, the second measuring how vigorously the standards are enforced.

"Standards are meaningless without oversight," Smith said. "The Defense Department has good enforcement, and that has brought their program to a much higher level."

Following the military atop the rankings were Illinois, New York, Maryland, Washington, Oklahoma, Michigan, North Dakota, Tennessee, Minnesota and Vermont. After Idaho and Louisiana, the next lowest scores were for Nebraska, Kentucky, California and Kansas.

Criteria for the rankings included caseloads for center inspectors, frequency of inspections, health and safety requirements, background checks, staff qualifications and activities offered to children.

The report, "We Can Do Better," said eight states do not even require annual inspections of childcare centers, let alone conduct them quarterly as Smith's association recommends. The association also advises that each inspector have no more than 50 centers to monitor; the report said 21 states have caseloads of more than 140 per inspector.

Regarding staff, the report said 21 states have no minimum educational requirement for childcare teachers; it said only New Jersey and the Defense Department require center directors to have a bachelor's degree.

The military's system, which has expanded and improved dramatically over the past 15 years, encompasses more than 740 facilities worldwide with spaces for 184,000 children. Its training and safety standards are considered state-of-the-art.

"We've worked hard for a lot of years so service members can do their jobs and not have to worry about their children," said Barbara Thompson, director of the Pentagon's children and youth office.

The new report said elected officials could take "simple steps" to ease the worst problems.

It said Congress should require fingerprint checks and basic training for all paid daycare workers as a condition for states to receive federal childcare money. It also urged states to improve staff-child ratios and require centers to meet basic health and safety standards.

"States are making this harder than they need to," Linda Smith said. "If they just do the basics, they can fix a lot of the problems."