This paper discusses some alternatives to the Federal Interagency Day Care Requirements (FIDCR) including the feasibility of developing state standards for certification of federally-supported day care. Section I describes briefly the background and political context of current federal policies concerning day care regulation. Section II discusses some major policy issues related to day care regulation: federal policy toward day care, the roles of standards, the legal status of federal regulations, and state roles in day care regulation. Section III describes some of the possible mechanisms which could be used in a system of state certification of federally-supported day care. Explored are procedures to be used, possible federal guidelines useful for states in establishing their own standards, and possible ways of implementing and monitoring such a system. Section IV describes rough cost estimates of such a state certification system and Section V presents a summary of the conclusions. (Author/CM)