Once a year, Tom and Elizabeth Conway fly in a baby sitter from Europe, as do thousands of other American parents.
While hiring an au pair might seem like an extravagance, Tom Conway felt it guaranteed a higher measure of quality -- and peace of mind -- about the person caring for their 17-month-old daughter.
"We couldn't see leaving her in a situation with 30 other kids and maybe three child-care workers," says Mr. Conway, an attorney.
To ensure that others have the same positive experience that Mr. Conway has had, the federal government is taking a more active role in supervising the au pair program and issuing revamped regulations that take effect today. The changes grew out of a number of reported abuses by au pairs, including an incident in Fairfax, Va., in which 19-year-old Dutch au pair Anna-Corina Peeze was charged last summer after being accused of shaking a 2-month-old baby to death.
The U.S. Information Agency (USIA) will now require its eight participating agencies to make sure that au pairs undergo reference and criminal records checks, as well as take child-care classes and emergency first aid training.
Also, agencies are now prohibited from placing an au pair with a child younger than 3 months old, unless a parent or other adult is present and primarily responsible for the child.
An au pair (a French term meaning "on par with") is typically a young European woman working in this country for a year under an exchange visitor program sponsored by the USIA. More than 40,000 au pairs have been in this country in the nine years the program has operated.
Federal officials got involved in the program after a string of high-profile incidents shed a new light on a loosely run, unregulated program.
An English au pair in suburban Maryland got drunk and plowed into two cars in November 1992, seriously injuring two doctors. The family was sued for $2.2 million. In 1988, 2-year-old Danielle Esposito of Bethesda, was crushed to death by a car operated by a 17-year-old au pair who had never driven before.
The new rules clearly insist on tighter responsibilities for both the au pair and the family. Besides the background check and the child-care training, au pairs must take a personality test, enroll in six semester-hours of classes and be proficient in English, among other requirements. Families must have background checks as well and attend cross-cultural workshops.