Amended child care task force passes House, back to Senate

Where have all the child care providers gone? Proposed legislation aims to answer that and other questions associated with child care across the state.

Sponsored by Rep. Mary Franson (R-Alexandria) and Sen. Vicki Jensen (DFL-Owatonna), HF3436/SF3208* would create a legislative child care task force to review the loss of child care providers across the state, assess affordability issues for providers and parents, and identify other issues supporters say need to be addressed by the Legislature.

Passed 126-4, as amended, by the House Saturday, it now returns to the Senate where it was first passed 45-13 on May 12.

According to the bill, the task force would:

• evaluate factors that contribute to child care costs for providers and families;
• assess the child care provider shortage in Greater Minnesota;
• review the current pre-service and in-service training requirements for family child care providers and child care center staff, including training required for licensure;
• review the availability of training in place to meet training needs of providers, including the content training, cost and delivery methods;
• consider the creation of a child care board to be responsible for all matters related to the licensing of child care providers, and to employ an advocate for child care providers;
• review the process of issuing and resolving correction orders issued to child care providers;
• consider uniform training requirements for county employees and supervisors who perform duties related to licensing;
• review progress made by the human services commissioner to streamline paperwork and reduce redundancies for child care providers; and
• review the time it takes to provide Child Care Assistance Program reimbursement to providers.

The added amendment would also have the task force “consider options for conducting exit interviews with providers who leave the child care field or choose not to be relicensed.”

In cooperation with the commissioner of human services, the task force would issue a report containing summary information and recommendations for additional legislative changes to the Legislature and governor by Jan. 15, 2017. The task force would dissolve at that point.