Washington state does not have a lot of extra money lying around these days, but Gov. Christine Gregoire signed three bills into law this week to improve child care.

Gov. Gregoire approved a bill that will highlight child care providers who don’t apply for licenses once notified they are operating unlicensed and illegal care, according to DEL Connects, the blog for the Washington State Department of Early Learning. It also doubles the penalty to $150 a day for a family-home child care offering unlicensed care.

A second law will create portable background checks for the child care industry. Once workers and providers clear a check they can get a three-year card - there are provisions to check for changes. In addition, next July new workers at licensed child care who may have unsupervised access to children will now undergo criminal background checks with fingerprints, the blog reports.

And a third law will make it easier for child care providers in good standing to keep licenses. The change will create a non-expiring license, which means these providers will not have to reapply every three years, though DEL will continue regular monitoring, according to the blog.

We [Department of Early Learning] will use any time saved to work with providers on offering quality care, to meet our GMAP licensing measures, and to do our other licensing-related functions. -- “Governor signs three child care licensing bills.” Department of Early Learning. 5/10/11.

Fighting Parents May Keep Baby Awake: Researchers suggested a possible link between feuding spouses and their babies’ sleep problems in a study released today.

…Instability in the parents’ relationship when the children are 9 months old predicted difficulties falling asleep and staying asleep when they were 18 months old. “Marriage Problems Predict Sleep Difficulties in Young Children.” Child Development, 5/11/11.