The Anchorage Assembly held a work session to review AO 2025-70, an ordinance amending Anchorage Municipal Code chapter 16.55 (child care licensing), with Anchorage Health Department staff outlining proposed code changes intended to reduce regulatory and financial barriers for licensed child care homes and centers. The health department said the ordinance will return to the Assembly for consideration on July 15.

The presentation, led by Kimberly Rasch, director of the Anchorage Health Department, framed the proposal as a response to a multi-year decline in licensed child care capacity and to recent Anchorage School District schedule changes that increased demand for before- and after-school care. Rasch said the department carried out a March–April 2024 survey, reviewed feedback from parents, administrators and child care workers, and used materials from a governor’s task force to inform the changes. "This was an intent to identify those barriers to child care as more homes and centers continue to close," Rasch said.

Nut graf: The ordinance package would align several municipal requirements with state practice and remove what the health department described as cost-prohibitive items in order to encourage more providers to open or remain operational. Proposed changes include removing several types of fees (annual renewal, plan-review and change fees), repealing a municipal liability-insurance requirement, increasing provisional home capacity, adopting state school-age ratios, removing a minimum enrollment age for centers, easing bathroom layout requirements, and clarifying playground inspection language.

Key proposals and details
- Fees: The health department proposes eliminating annual renewal fees (ranging, as presented, from $50 for homes to $125–$375 for centers depending on capacity) and plan-review/change fees (presented as $15–$130 depending on capacity). Staff estimated the municipality would lose about $37,000 in annual revenue if fees are removed.
- Liability insurance: The ordinance would remove the municipal requirement that providers carry liability insurance. Don Skeep, Child Care Licensing Supervisor, described the change as putting the insurance decision on the provider: "The idea behind this 1 really was to let this become an a business decision." Department staff said the state has not required liability insurance and that providers—particularly home-based providers—are increasingly unable to find or afford specialized childcare liability policies.
- Capacity and ratios: The proposal would allow licensed homes in their provisional (first) year to serve up to eight children (up from six). The ordinance also adopts state school-age ratios to give centers flexibility with school-age care, which the health department said was used by 42 facilities during the 2024–25 school year.
- Minimum enrollment age and caregiver requirement: The proposal would remove the municipal minimum age of six weeks for center enrollment (the state has no such minimum) and would remove a municipal requirement that two caregivers be present at all times, allowing providers to set staffing based on business needs and the children’s schedules.
- Building and playground requirements: The ordinance would remove specific bathroom layout requirements that the department said are often cost-prohibitive for new or remodeled facilities (for example, separate adult bathrooms and certain wall-height requirements) and would consolidate and clarify when certified playground-inspector evaluations are required. The health department said sections duplicative of state rules (noted in the presentation as 7 AAC 10.106060) would be removed from municipal code language to avoid redundancy.

Discussion and legal context
Assembly members asked about the safety and liability implications of removing the municipal insurance requirement. Jessica, an attorney from the Department of Law (on the call), told the Assembly that the municipality had previously adopted the insurance requirement as a policy matter and that Alaska statute 09.65.070 provides some protection for licensing actions: she said the statute "provides some protection, against, any liability for damages based on issuance of a license." Legal staff and department presenters acknowledged there is no absolute immunity and said they would follow up with additional legal analysis and examples from other jurisdictions.

Assembly members and other participants stressed two recurring concerns: child safety if insurance is not required, and the practical effect of insurance requirements on the supply of home-based providers. Several members noted that insurance for home providers is increasingly scarce and costly, which they argued effectively caps the number of home-based providers. Others requested follow-up data on longer-term trends in licensed facilities (requests included data back to 2015) and examples from other jurisdictions about outcomes when municipalities remove insurance mandates.

Next steps and staff directions
No formal action was taken at the work session. Staff said the ordinance (AO 2025-70) will return to the Assembly for formal consideration on July 15. The health department said that if the Assembly adopts the changes, the department will broadcast the updates to licensed providers, work with the state child care program to incorporate changes into the licensing database and inspection reports, and undertake a second round of code revisions later (addressing online training, children’s physicals and other items flagged in the department survey). The department also proposed conducting a follow-up survey about outcomes approximately one year after any changes are adopted.

Ending: The work session closed with the Assembly calendar note that the administration may request additional work sessions on a second phase of code revisions; staff and legal counsel said they would return with requested clarifications and additional legal context before any final vote.