DRIVERS NEED DRUG TESTING

Requirement For Day Care Drivers Is A Sound One.

Some day care operators are resentful of a new state regulation that
requires all drivers for their facilities to be tested for drug use.
Operators say that it will add a level of bureaucracy to their businesses
and be a burdensome expense.

The tests cost $25 to $45 each.

What is the cost, however, of a child's life? When parents entrust their
children to a day care center, they need a reasonable assurance that the
children will be kept safe.

Under the rule, day care centers on Aug. 1 must begin testing new drivers
within 10 days of hiring them. Drivers now on the job must be tested by Jan. 1.

In Memphis since March, some 500 day care workers and drivers already have
taken a voluntary drug test. Astoundingly, 20 percent of them came back
with positive results.

The president of the company doing the testing said that was a rate 20
times higher than what they see with commercial trucking. And remember,
these were workers who volunteered to be tested. Who knows what results
would have come out if everyone had had to submit to the tests.

Of course, just 80 of the 500 who volunteered to be tested were day care
drivers -- and the new regulations apply only to drivers -- but in Memphis,
at least, there is a problem with drug use that parents and law enforcement
definitely needed to be aware of.

Here in Clarksville, no doubt the vast majority of day care workers,
including drivers, are responsible adults who have the safety and best
interests of the children in their charge at the forefront.

But the new rule will be in place to help provide a safety net and some
peace of mind for anxious parents. The rules also will help day care
operators find out about troubled employees before a disastrous tragedy has
a chance to strike.