Though state regulators accelerated stringent new pool rules for child care centers following a toddler’s drowning in Westbrook earlier this year, ample time remains for policymakers and providers to negotiate the long-term solution.

The death of Andrew Thurston, a 3-year-old who crawled unnoticed into his day care’s swimming pool on March 26, exposed weakness in the state’s oversight of pools, to which the Maine Department of Health and Human Services reacted swiftly, and strongly.

Emergency rules outlining strict swimming and pool regulations went into effect on June 1, a rapid enactment that should please parents, but has rankled providers who feel the rules were created in a vacuum, and are financially burdensome, especially new provisions on lifeguard training.

DHHS has ordered centers to have staff with advanced lifesaving and water rescue training on site while pools are in use. These “water safety attendants” are exempt from the day care’s child-to-staff ratio, which means centers must hire an additional person solely for “water activities.”

In light of the state’s professed weakness in its pool rules, and the egregious story from Westbrook – where the swim instructor’s certification had expired in 1978 – the measures instituted by DHHS are understandable. Faced with a tragedy on its watch, the agency responded appropriately.

Delaying implementation while awaiting input from providers, however, would have painted DHHS as plodding through an issue that screamed for action. The agency, not known for its agility, made the right choice in enacting swift reforms to restore the faith of Maine parents who depend on child care facilities.

On Tuesday, providers made their views clear during a public hearing about the new rules. They agreed with more oversight, but not with the financial burden that comes with hiring an additional staff member to monitor their pools.

For this summer, however, providers must live with the rules, and either hire the appropriate personnel or use different ways of cooling off, as some providers have said they will do instead. With the rules placed, but final legislative action pending, now is the time for compromise.

Day cares provide too valuable a service for working Maine families to be burdened with unfunded mandates, as anything crimping the availability, or cost, of child care needs to be avoided. Yet parents who allow their children to swim must trust their providers to maintain all the necessary safeguards.

DHHS, and providers, are working toward the same goal: providing the safest and most supportive environment for children. Keeping this commonality at the forefront of their discourse should smooth their current discord, and allow both sides equal say in shaping the permanent rules presented to the Legislature later this year.