By Eli Francovich

The Spokesman-Review

A national free-speech group has asked a Washington state daycare program to revise a standard which it says limits the use of frightening books and could keep books like “Where the Wild Things Are” and “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves” off daycare shelves.

The standard is one factor used to determine which day cares get state money.

The line in question says “books that glorify violence in any way or show frightening images are not considered to be appropriate.”

Ross Hunter, the director of the Early Learning department said his department will not penalize childcare providers for having certain kinds of books, and has never done so.

“We are absolutely not doing censorship,” he said.

The standard is part of the Washington State Department of Early Learning’s Early Achievers rating program which provides money to daycare programs.

Hunter said the standard is part of a larger national set of standards known as the Environmental Rating Scale and can’t be easily changed.

“I will go whine at them, so maybe we can get them to change it in the next version,” he said of the Environmental Rating Scale.

The letter was sent by the National Coalition Against Censorship on Nov. 21 and called the standard “excessively vague and overboard.”

Hunter said the NCAC had “a legitimate right to be concerned about that language.”

A spokesperson for the NCAC said they were made aware of the standard by a concerned librarian.

“If we were deducting points based on some subjective judgment … I don’t want to go there,” Hunter said. “If people believe that, people will pick insipid books for their facilities.”

The standard is used to evaluate facilities on a five-point scale, and is part of the state’s Early Start Act, which was signed into law in 2015.

A facility’s score helps determine the amount of state funding the facility receives. By 2020, facilities earning below a three score won’t receive subsidies. The language in question is just one small part of the overall scoring, Hunter said.

Hunter said he’s heard concerns about the “frightening images” standard before.

“I have to send a better message,” he said. “You should not worry about it (the standard) you should pick great books.”