Are Martial Arts after school programs regulated?

[JcWoman]

A friend at work has a problem with the after school program in a local martial arts center. She didn’t tell me what the problem was (and I don’t need to know), but I offered to try to figure out if there is some regulator or consumer affairs group that she can file a complaint with. I don’t have kids, so am not familiar with this industry but my intuition and initial googling tells me there may be nothing at all. They seem to not need any kind of licensing or certification to set up shop.

Does anyone here know different? This is in Virginia.

A follow-on question: if I’m right and they’re not regulated at all, how are they allowed to do the after school stuff that they do? I’m talking about the ones who offer transportation from the kid’s school to their dojo, help the kid with homework and offer other after school day-care-type activities until the parent picks them up after work. I would think that crosses the line into day care and would thus need to have day care certification. No?

[Tom_Tildrum]

I found a source stating as follows (emphasis added):

In Virginia, most child care centers are required to have a license. However, there are 14 categories of group care that are license-exempt (not required to obtain a license). These group settings range from religious exempt settings to single focus settings for school-age children (i.e., karate classes, dance lessons, etc.). While there are some minimal requirements in some cases, the rules do not meet licensing standards (i.e., providers do not have to meet training requirements or basic health and safety standards that licensed programs meet). Settings that are not required to meet licensing standards leave parents on their own as to the quality of the program and the safety of the setting.

I cannot vouch for the accuracy of any of this; it’s just something I saw on the internet.

Absent a particular licensing authority, many cities and large counties in Virginia will have a consumer affairs office, and the state Attorney General has consumer complaint procedures.

[Grey]

I take it the obvious answer of “talk to the organization doing the activity” isn’t possible?

[JcWoman]

Thanks Tom T. I’ll forward this info to her.

She has pulled her son out of the program and said that she did talk to them about the issue. It sounded like she was told to control her son better, or something like that. (i.e. blame the victim)

Glad I don’t have kids.

[Grey]

I’d hazard a guess that they told her her son had to control *himself *better. If it’s an actual martial arts centre there’s an expectation that the kids are listening to the instructor and not behaving in a dangerous or uncontrolled manner. Depends a lot of the age of the kid of course.

The easy answer then, I suppose, is to bring it up with either the school board or the individual school using the dojo as an after school facility.

[TriPolar]

We don’t know what the problem is but there won’t be many solutions that don’t involve taking the kid out of the program. Grey may be correct, the kid isn’t working out there. Martial arts programs aren’t for everyone.

[yellowjacketcoder]

@JcWoman

She has pulled her son out of the program and said that she did talk to them about the issue. It sounded like she was told to control her son better, or something like that. (i.e. blame the victim).

That doesn’t mean the ‘dojo’ was wrong. It could well have been the kid’s fault for being a pint-sized toolbag.

Doesn’t mean the ‘dojo’ was right either. It could well have been that the kid was innocent and they didn’t want to accept blame.

[JcWoman]

From what little she told me, he wasn’t actually enrolled in the martial arts classes, only the after school program, e.g. supervised homework and playtime. She did tell me that it cost nothing, so she didn’t have to ask for a refund when she pulled him out. (thus she got her money’s worth)

The way I am with my animals, if I had a kid, the school would have been through the Spanish Inquisition before I agreed to enroll him in it!