DHS outlines overhaul of child-care licensing: risk-based scoring, shorter inspections and revised standards

The Minnesota Department of Human Services on Wednesday outlined a multi-part plan to modernize child-care licensing that aims to prioritize high-risk health and safety items, shorten routine inspections for stable providers and simplify many prescriptive standards for centers and family child-care homes.

Larry Hosch, manager for the Office of Inspector General's policy and legislative team at DHS, told the House Children and Families Committee the project originated from a 2021 legislative directive that required DHS to contract with the National Association of Regulatory Administrators (NARA). "This project came from the 2021 legislature, directing the department to contract with the national association of regulatory administrators," Hosch said as he introduced three components: a weighted risk system, a key-indicator approach to enable abbreviated inspections, and revised licensing standards.

The weighted risk system would assign each regulation a weight from 1 (low risk) to 10 (high risk) based on stakeholder input, giving licensors objective guidance about which violations most threaten children's health and safety. Hosch said DHS surveyed roughly 1,295 family child-care respondents and nearly 1,000 child-care center respondents; most respondents were providers. For family child-care the lowest-weighted regulation cited in the presentation was 1.91 (an application-residence requirement) and the highest was 9.52 (prohibiting alcohol or drug use while caring for children). For centers the average weight shown was 6.72, with a low of 2.67 and a high of 9.39 (prohibitions on corporal punishment, emotional abuse or restraints).

Under the plan, low-risk items would typically trigger documented technical assistance rather than licensing action; moderate items might lead to correction orders; and high-risk items would prompt formal licensing actions. Hosch said DHS used the top 10th percentile of weighted items to determine…