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Child care changes

Published (4/4/2008)
By Patty Ostberg
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Family care providers would have to comply with a few new regulations, under a bill approved March 28 by the House Finance Committee.

HF3376, sponsored by Rep. Neva Walker (DFL-Mpls), would remove a loophole that allows families to receive paid assistance for caring for their own children in a child care setting.

Other changes in the bill include:

• creating a Child Care Advisory Task Force to make recommendations to the Legislature on removing barriers facing families applying for and receiving child care assistance;

• requiring that child care licensees place infants on their backs to sleep unless provided documentation by the parents from the infant’s doctor;

• requiring participants in the Minnesota Family Investment Program to maintain eligibility by developing either an employment plan or family stabilization services plan;

• consolidating state laws with federal laws in regards to MFIP and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; and

• modifying the Basic Sliding Fee allocation formula to distribute funds to counties for unmet family needs.

Walker added an amendment that would require counties and American Indian tribes to not impose residency requirements on families, except under state residency requirements.

Some counties have not allowed women to maintain county residency because they temporarily moved to another for aid in a battered women’s shelter, said Jessica Webster, a Legal Services Advocacy Project advocate. Some counties require a 30-day residency and women were unable to qualify for aid, she said.

A companion bill, SF3170, sponsored by Sen. Patricia Torres Ray (DFL-Mpls), awaits action by the Senate Finance Committee.

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