Nicole Sellers of Saratoga Springs wanted to enroll her 3-year-old daughter in preschool. She knew the director and trusted her, so she put down a $50 deposit for the home-based program. Then she started asking questions, and she didn't like the answers.

"I really thought they had background checks, they'd have CPR certification," Sellers said. What she found out instead from the Saratoga Springs city offices is that preschools are required only to receive business licenses and conditional-use permits. The rigorous requirements for day cares don't apply.

"I cannot believe for two seconds that I was going to send my 3-and-a-half-year-old there," Sellers said. "It scares me so bad, and it scares me for other people's children, too."

Sellers has been letting her neighbors know, hoping to make a difference. "I want other women to know this because it's very important to me. Our 3- and 4-year-olds are so impressionable, and if we don't protect them, no one will."

Teresa Whiting, director of the state Bureau of Child Care Licensing, said unless the programs run all day, which would qualify them as day cares, her office isn't charged with licensing preschools. The program Sellers was considering would have run for 2.5 hours a day, two days a week, with an option of three days a week.

"Right now preschools are not required to be licensed," Whiting said. "They just register if the city where they're at requires a business license."

Day cares, however, must meet a long list of requirements, Whiting said. There are rules about building safety; staff age and training; background checks for employees and anyone in the home where the day care is operated, including children ages 12-17; emergency preparedness plans; staff ratios; immunization records; nutrition; preventing the spread of disease; abusive disciplinary techniques; safe transportation; animals on the premises; and who a day care can release a child to. There also must be at least one worker on the premises at all times who is certified in CPR and first aid.

Mandy Troxel, a clerk in the Saratoga Springs Town Hall offices, said preschools must get a conditional-use permit from the Planning Commission and register as a business with the city.

In Orem, preschools must register with the city if they serve more than six children. City code requires day cares to pass fire and safety inspections, and business license specialist Aaron Lyman said preschools are treated the same way. "To me personally, it's kind of a standard to have safety in those homes," he said.

Orem building safety technician Tamara Beardall said she inspects the homes for such safety concerns as heating and air conditioning systems, and checks that smoke detectors and hand rails are in place, and that workers could get into a bathroom if the door were to get locked accidentally.

Provo city offices were closed on Friday, but a business license application available on the city's Web site lists preschools as a business type.

Heidi Mitchell, who works in the business license office in American Fork, said preschools are treated the same as other businesses. They must register with the city, pass a fire inspection and get zoning clearance. The police chief must sign off if there are traffic concerns in a neighborhood. But the city does not require background checks or CPR certification.

Mitchell said the prospect of further regulating the businesses has been discussed in years past, but the idea was tossed out. She couldn't remember why.

State Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said the issue came up when he was a state representative. "There was heavy debate on this issue six or seven years ago." That's when the state started requiring licensing for preschools that served more than five unrelated children for most of the day, he said.

On Friday, Sellers said she was thinking about sending out letters to the community to warn parents about the lack of preschool regulation. Without such regulations, she said, customers might not know such things as if a resident of the house was sex offender.

"I want all the mothers to know because I do not think it's safe for our children."

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.