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State proposes major rewrite of child‑care licensing; department seeks rulemaking and training timeline changes
Summary
The Department of Health and Human Services proposed HB 1119 to consolidate multiple child‑care license types into two (family and center), streamline training timelines, decouple annual training from license renewal deadlines and create a preschool designation; providers urged robust rulemaking and flagged cost and staffing impacts.
House Human Services Committee members heard testimony Wednesday on House Bill 1119, a department‑sponsored proposal that would simplify North Dakota’s child‑care licensing framework by consolidating several license categories into two primary types (family child care and child care center), creating a voluntary "recognized" status for some exempt providers and changing annual training timelines.
Carmen Trehult, early childhood licensing administrator for the Department of Health and Human Services, said the rewrite responds to a crosswalk study that found redundancy across six license types and administrative burdens that confuse providers and parents. The bill would allow family child care programs to serve up to 12 children and would treat centers as programs that serve more than 12 children; it also creates a unified calendar year for annual training credit so training completed in any part of the calendar year counts for licensing purposes.
"The simplification proposed in the bill represents a significant change to the child‑care licensing framework," Carmen Trehult said. "It will allow the department to streamline regulations and allow providers to increase capacity without needing to apply for a new license."
The bill would also create a preschool designation for programs that meet credential and curriculum criteria, expand eligibility for inclusion supports to additional program types and update definitions used in child‑care assistance eligibility. To implement the changes, the department said it will need to update administrative rules, training tracking systems and outreach to providers; it requested a small technical amendment to specify "pediatric CPR" in the training language.
Child‑care providers supported simplification in principle but asked for a robust public‑rulemaking process and urged the department to vet details. Laurie Temke of the YMCA of the Northern Sky said some large multi‑site providers would face higher staffing costs if supervisors at each site would need director‑level qualifications under a revised center definition. The YMCA asked the department and legislators to ensure rules allow practical implementation and to consider scholarship and subsidy impacts.
Fiscal staff and the Department of Human Services cautioned that consolidating license types will affect child‑care assistance reimbursement categories: analysts estimate that moving some group licensed settings to the center rate could increase monthly subsidy payments by about $178,000 if those sites are reimbursed at the higher center rate. The department also said administrative systems will need updates to track training and to handle the changed renewal and calendar structure.
Several lawmakers and stakeholders suggested further work in rulemaking and consultations with providers to refine definitions (for example, what qualifies as a "preschool designation" or precise staff‑to‑child ratios). The committee closed the hearing without a vote and asked the department to work with providers and legislative staff on technical details.
