It's been a little more than 24 hours since this former daycare provider, Amy Dierks, walked out of a Sioux Falls courtroom a free woman... after a jury found her not guilty of aggravated assault.
She was accused of shaking 6-month-old Henry Johnson in November of 2007... causing blindness and brain injuries.

Henry Johnson's grandfather says the family disagrees with the verdict, but their focus now is to work to improve state laws to better protect children from abuse and he is not alone in that mission.
A Sioux Falls advocacy group says there is a loophole in South Dakota child care laws which puts kids at risk every day; a loophole which involves some home based daycares.

'South Dakota Voices For Children' is hoping this case helps raise awareness about South Dakota's licensing for home daycare providers... here's why they're concerned. Right now every state in the country requires home daycare providers to get a license if they care for seven or more kids. Some states are stricter than this. For example in Minnesota you can only care for two kids before you need a license. In Iowa the number is six. But in South Dakota, the state doesn't require a license. Unless you care for 13 or more kids.

"So that means a home-based provider that's providing services in a small business could choose to meet standards of health and safety and have a fire inspection... or not. It's voluntary. It's up to them. We think it ought not to be voluntary." Executive Director for South Dakota Voices for Children... Susan Randall... has been bringing that message to the state legislature for years, but now she's got support from the family of baby Henry Johnson. "South Dakota has some of the weakest laws in the nation protecting our children and we're going to work with the state legislature to get something positive out of this. And that would be to change our laws to protect our children."

Susan says that begins with state licensing. "We are clearly an outlier as a state in the commitment that we've made to protecting young children that are in childcare."

There's one simple reason why these home daycare providers with fewer than 13 kids are getting so much attention. They account for about half of the childcare in the state.

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