This paper reviews the legal aspects of the Federal Interagency Day Care Requirements (FIDCR). Section I describes the scope of the regulations and the sanctions used to uphold them, namely the withholding or withdrawing of federal funds. This section examines some of the potential legal challenges to the regulations, constitutional issues, special enforcement issues in family day care, the federal-state relationship, and the state of the art in day care licensing. Also included is a general critique of the FIDCR. Section II describes some of the issues and options facing the federal government in the revision and enforcement of the federal regulations. Several strategies are explored as possible ways of improving day care services through the enforcement of the federal standards. The recommendations based on these strategies reflect the following concerns: the relationship between federal standards and state licensing, the content of proposed standards, provisions for inspection and monitoring of programs, and the federal role in the development and improvement of day care services in the next ten years. (BD)