Senate committee advances OPR fee changes and proposal to license early childhood educators; ECE portion likely to shift in House

The Senate Finance Committee advanced H.472 on May 20, a bill from the Office of Professional Regulation that would both expand licensing for early childhood educators and authorize a set of new or increased professional‑regulation fees.

The Office of Professional Regulation (OPR) and the Secretary of State’s office presented the bill. Lauren Hibbert, deputy secretary of state, told the committee the bill would establish individual licensure for early childhood educators, create a nine‑member board, and set a phased timeline with fees intended to cover program costs. Sharon Harrington, executive director of the Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children, testified the state’s workforce and recent investments make the profession ready for licensure.

Supporters said the bill creates three standard licensure tiers — ECE 1, ECE 2 and ECE 3 — plus a separate “family childcare provider” track for in‑home providers. Under the current draft, the licensure program would begin in 2027, with an eight‑year transition period allowing existing workers to meet education requirements. Hibbert described the education standards the bill contemplates: an ECE 1 pathway that relies on roughly 120 hours of early childhood training, an ECE 2 pathway aligned with an associate degree (or equivalent credits plus field experience) and an ECE 3 pathway aligned with a bachelor’s degree or equivalent. The bill directs further detail to rulemaking.

Harrington said OPR’s Sunrise review and multi‑year workforce work informed the bill and that many early childhood educators had asked for professional licensure. “Individual licensure for early childhood educators recognizes individual expertise, prevents harm, enhances the profession’s reputation, and demonstrates that licensed early childhood educators are well‑equipped to provide safe, quality care,” she told the committee.

OPR staff also described a set of fee changes and additions the bill would authorize. Jennifer Cohen, general counsel for OPR, said the bill would: allow OPR to charge for custom data feeds and APIs; raise a license‑verification fee from $20 to $30; reinstate an electrology shop fee at $200 that had been dropped in 2019; add a $50 apprenticeship application fee; create specialty‑license fees; add a $250 disciplinary surcharge tied to enforcement outcomes; and permit a larger penalty for unauthorized practice (raising the administrative maximum from $2,500 to $5,000). Cohen said several of the changes correct prior drafting errors or authorize charges for work OPR currently performs without a fee.

Hibbert and Cohen said OPR is understaffed for the number of professions it regulates — roughly 41 staff for more than 50 professions — and that many of the fee proposals are intended to help the office cover program and enforcement costs. Hibbert said the administration has proposed using the child care tax fund to subsidize licensure application and renewal costs for the first two cycles to reduce barriers for the workforce.

Several senators pressed for budget clarity and noted the early childhood components are not funded in the budget passed by the full Legislature. Senator Hardy asked whether the committee should remove the early childhood provisions now that the House appears unlikely to carry them this year; Hibbert said keeping the provisions in the Senate bill has been the preference through the Senate process and that the House may make a different decision.

The committee approved a motion to report H.472 favorably as sent by the Government Operations Committee. The motion was made on the record and carried in the committee vote recorded in the transcript.

What matters: licensing would change oversight from facility‑level regulation to individual licensure for thousands of non‑public‑school early childhood educators; fee changes would affect commercial users of OPR services and could incrementally increase revenues for enforcement and administrative operations. The licensure dates, fee levels and any subsidy details remain subject to future budget decisions and rulemaking.

Details and next steps: If the House removes the early childhood licensure provisions, the remaining OPR fee items could still move. Hibbert said rulemaking and stakeholder engagement would follow statutory changes and that the administration anticipates returning with fee adjustments every few years.

Speakers quoted in this article are drawn from testimony and committee discussion during the May 20 hearing and are attributed to the roles they used at the hearing.