Relaxing health and safety regulations also could endanger the small children they are supposed to protect.

The safety standards for day-care centers have not changed, but it will be harder to make sure those standards are met at all times under the new rules. State licensing specialists will no longer make unannounced inspections, limiting them to one announced inspection per year. The office also will no longer investigate anonymous complaints.

The changes were made after day-care operators complained about the inconvenience of spot checks and legislators threatened to step in if regulators didn't change their policies. The new rules are being explained as a way for the licensing office to help operators meet regulations instead of taking a "gotcha" attitude.

Working with operators to improve conditions is the right way to handle the majority, who are conscientious and responsible, but it won't help to catch the few who are not.

A system in which only complaints that come from identified sources are investigated and then only once a year at scheduled inspections is totally incapable of finding dangerous situations. Tiny children cannot tell parents or anyone else what goes on at their day-care center when no one is watching.

Strict enforcement of standards is also the only way to provide a reliable system of licensing that is useful to parents, who have few other ways of knowing how their children are cared for while they are away.

A state license rightly implies assurance of a certain level of care. The state can offer no such guarantee when day-care operators have a year to get ready for an inspection.

Occasional unannounced inspections are a reasonable way to determine the validity of complaints by catching a poorly run or even abusive care center in the act. There is no reason for operators who are meeting standards to object.

The decision to stop investigating anonymous complaints unwisely eliminates a way for neighbors or others to notify the state when they believe there is a problem without running the risk of having their identity known if their worries prove unfounded.

Day-care operators' complaints that they are being harassed by inspectors who do too many unnecessary and arbitrary spot checks ring hollow considering there are 271 commercial centers and only 24 regulators to police the entire industry statewide.

Relaxing enforcement of day-care standards can put children at risk and leave parents to do the policing themselves.