Progress made, but concerns remain in DHS’s second draft of new family childcare rules
In 2021, the Minnesota legislature passed a law creating the childcare modernization project. The legislature tasked the Department of Human Services (DHS) with analyzing and recommending updates to childcare licensing standards for both daycare centers and family childcare providers.
After contracting with the National Association of Regulatory Administration (NARA), the DHS released the first draft of revised standards in April 2024. As American Experiment noted, while for daycare centers, some parts of the revised standards were an improvement on current rules, the opposite was the case for family childcare.
In addition to introducing new rules for family providers, the DHS proposed a more prescriptive language, which would limit flexibility and raise costs. Fortunately, in the second draft, most of these burdensome rules have been addressed. Concerns, however, remain.
Here’s a look at how DHS’s second draft on family childcare rules improves on the first, and which concerning proposals remain.
The second draft
After reviewing DHS’s initial draft, American Experiment warned that, if enacted, revised standards would likely raise costs and drive family childcare providers out of the market. This is because, in addition to creating new rules to comply with, such as that soil should be covered, the DHS also proposed very prescriptive rules, which would take providers’ time and money to comply with.
For instance, new requirements specified the number and type of toys that providers must have, house temperature, how to clean, how often to clean, what materials not to use for cleaning, among other things. New standards also increased paperwork and documentation requirements by, for instance, requiring providers to document and report the use of pesticides, the introduction of new toys, and the handling of pests.
The second draft has improved on most of these, reverting to earlier standards.
For example, instead of specifying the number and type of toys, the second draft requires that providers have age and developmentally appropriate materials for children. Cleaning can be done as needed, and prohibitions on things like aerosols have been removed.
Some documentation requirements, such as those on handling pets and the introduction of new toys, have also been removed. Providers will also no longer be required to cover bare soil. Indoor temperature is back to the previous minimum of 62 degrees Fahrenheit, instead of what DHS proposed in the first draft — 68 to 82 degrees.
Not every burdensome rule has been reversed, however. Concerns remain, particularly with capacity limits.
Concerns
To ease slot shortages, the DHS proposed expanding capacity limits for group family childcare. However, these new updates leave restrictions on infant slots unchanged in both the first and second drafts.
Currently, under the C3 license, providers can have up to 14 children if they have a second caregiver on site. That number has been increased to 18. The number of allowed infants, however, remains the same, which means that the shortage of infant slots could persist.
Similarly, under the B3 license — a specialized infant and toddler care license— providers can have up to ten children, if they have a second caregiver, and do not need to get licensed as a group family childcare to do so. This is up from nine. However, the number of allowed infants per person remains the same as under the current rules.
Additionally, as a compromise, DHS will require providers to check on sleeping infants every 20 minutes, instead of the 15 minutes proposed in the first draft. However, current standards require that providers check on sleeping infants every 30 minutes. The section on behavior guidance is still prescriptive and is about double the length of the current standards.
In short, there is still room for more improvements to be made to ensure that new rules can accommodate the need for higher capacities while not raising regulatory burden on providers.