The Department of Human Services has completed regulatory standards for a juvenile facility in Fort Dodge.

Anchor Character Training Center, 1940 225th St., is a coed home for troubled teens operated by Harvest Baptist Church.

The standards cover background checks for employees, provisions to prevent abuse, minimum staff rations, evacuation plans and other safety regulations.

Anchor, classified as a children's center, is apparently the only such facility operating in the state of Iowa.

The children's center standards provide recommended policies for lawmakers and others, according to DHS spokesman Roger Munns.

The standards are similar to those for group foster care facilities, emergency juvenile shelters and child care centers, he said.

While the law creating children's centers requires the DHS to establish licensing standards, DHS Director Gene Gessow said last month that the law does not contain key ingredients necessary for state regulation.

''The law does not establish a certification or licensure process and there are no provisions for enforcement,'' Gessow said.

However, several local lawmakers have been considering giving DHS the ability to oversee and enforce rules for such a facility.

Sen. Daryl Beall, D- Fort Dodge, said he's been working with Sen. Jack Hatch, D-Des Moines and co-chair of the Human Services appropriations subcommittee, as well as DHS personnel on the matter of children's centers.

The Department of Human Services doesn't have specific responsibility right now to provide oversight for children's centers or enforce their rules, Beall said.

"The department will be given oversight responsibilities. This rule-making responsibility will also be included in the DHS appropriations bill and will be codified and enforceable. The rules will, of course, be subject to the Legislature's Oversight Committee and the Administrative Rules Committee for review," Beall said.

Sen. Rich Olive, D-Story City, serves as chair of the committee and has also been involved with the effort.

"There will be some ongoing things only because whenever a question is raised about the safety of kids you do need to make sure ... the children are protected,'' Olive said Saturday.

After consulting with legal counsel, Gessow last month directed staff to prepare standards for the licensing of children's centers.

The DHS also filed proposed administrative rules describing broad facility standards that focus on keeping children safe.

''While current law does not provide for state regulation of children's centers, the DHS does investigate complaints of child abuse at any facility, whether licensed or not,'' said Munns.

Munns said previously that the normal process for writing criteria for such a facility includes a public comment period before the rules are submitted to the Rules and Review Committee of the Legislature.

Sen. Jack Kibbie, D-Emmetsburg, who sits on the Rules and Review Committee, has previously voiced support for regulation.

"On facilities like this one that care for adolescents, it should have some regulation or oversight by the state. We have to do what's in the best interest of the child," Kibbie said last month.

Children's centers are defined by law as privately-funded facilities that provide services for at least seven children who are not in the custody of any state or court agency.

Marvin Smith, the pastor of Harvest Baptist Church and the Anchor Character Training Center, has repeatedly declined interviews with The Messenger. Smith did not return a phone message on Wednesday.

Contact Abigail McWilliam at (515) 573-2141 or amcwilliam@messengernews.net