House approves pilot to speed childcare workforce training and create thousands of slots

The House passed the committee substitute to House Bill 389 on its third reading, creating a childcare workforce pilot program that sponsors said would expand rapid training and supports for prospective childcare workers.

Representative Art, the bill’s sponsor, told the chamber the pilot builds on successful academies in Wayne and Johnson counties and would fund 10 additional academies around the state. The program would compress the EDU 119 training course from about 15 weeks to two or three weeks, locate the academies at community colleges, and provide health screenings, fingerprints and background checks at no cost to students.

Art said the pilot has the potential to produce about 1,000 new teacher candidates and, by one estimate, generate 8,000 to 10,000 additional child-care slots if each new worker supervises eight to 10 children. He framed the measure as one of multiple bills intended to address the state’s childcare capacity and workforce shortage.

House members recorded a 113–0 tally on the bill’s second-reading roll call; the committee substitute passed on third reading and will be sent to the Senate.