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House amends bill to let school‑district childcare centers lease surplus space while keeping regulatory requirements
Summary
The House amended House Bill 22 to remove statutory barriers that limited use of surplus classroom space for childcare, deleted an arbitrary 5% classroom cap and clarified district‑run employee centers must comply with state regulations; sponsors circled the bill for later consideration.
Representative Jones, sponsor of House Bill 22, told the House the bill is intended to put surplus public‑school space to use for licensed childcare centers to help ease Utah’s growing childcare shortage. “My purpose was to take a public resource, which is surplus space in certain public schools, and to put that resource to use in trying to solve our growing childcare crisis in this state,” Jones said.
The legislation, as amended on the floor, would do three things: remove a requirement that a school must be operating at 70% of maximum student capacity before leasing surplus space for a childcare center; eliminate a provision limiting a center to no more than 5% of a building’s total classroom space; and clarify the statute does not exempt childcare centers established by school districts for employees or students from compliance with state regulations (subsection 8).
Jones told colleagues the 70% occupancy rule can create a practical “catch‑22” because a school at 70% enrollment may still lack usable space when every grade requires a dedicated classroom. He offered a concrete example of a district school that could not be closed under existing law and therefore could not make available that surplus space for a parent‑run co‑op that offered to pay $400 a month in lease costs. On the 5% limit, the sponsor noted an 18‑classroom building with about 11,600 square feet of classroom area would yield a 5% cap of roughly 580 square feet—too small to convert a classroom for childcare use.
On the floor the sponsor moved a textual amendment to the pink‑sheet language to add the phrase “except that such centers must comply with subsection 8” following the words “school district,” making explicit that district‑operated employee or student centers must meet the same health, safety and licensing requirements that apply elsewhere. Representative Bodley raised questions about whether district‑run centers would gain an unfair advantage over private providers by avoiding certain costs; Jones and supporters said districts already charge for utilities and related costs in some cases but the amendment simply preserved regulatory parity.
The voice vote on the sponsor’s insertion was announced carried by the chair and the House subsequently moved to “circle” House Bill 22—deferring further changes—before adjourning to recess at 2:00 p.m.
What happens next: House Bill 22 was carried over for later consideration; the amendment that clarifies compliance with subsection 8 now sits in the bill text and would remain subject to committee review and any technical edits that follow.
