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Child-care providers urge Senate to restore peer-review appeal process and pass SB177 to shore up workforce
Summary
Multiple childcare owners and CEO Project representatives asked the Senate Finance Committee to restore a peer-review appeals process and consider Senate Bill 177 (free childcare for child-care workers) as part of HB 96 to address staffing shortages and permit providers to keep businesses open following licensing disputes.
Several early-childhood providers and a representative of the CEO Project testified that Senate Bill 177 and restoration of a peer-review appeal process are necessary to stabilize Ohio’s childcare workforce and protect small providers from closure due to licensing disputes. Speakers said staff recruitment and retention are hindered because many childcare workers cannot afford care for their own children, and that the proposed bill would allow providers to offer free slots for employees' children in exchange for work.
Nut graf: Providers said that childcare staff shortages are exacerbated when workers cannot access affordable care for their own children. They described the peer-review appeal process as essential due process for licensed programs facing ambiguous or inconsistently applied violations; they asked senators to add peer-review protections back to the budget text and to adopt SB177's workforce provisions in the omnibus amendment.
Speakers including Nafree Cook (CEO Project), Sandra Phillips (Pitter Patter Learning Center) and Tashianna Quachie (childcare operator) described day-to-day caregiving tasks and said many centers already subsidize needs for families. "No business in Ohio should be subjected to the perils of losing your business because no due process exists," Cook said. Several witnesses said the peer-review process would cost the state little or nothing and would prevent unnecessary center closings.
Ending: Providers urged the Senate to include language in the final budget that both restores peer review for licensing disputes and implements workforce-support measures so centers can recruit staff and expand capacity without forcing employees to leave the field for lack of affordable care.
