EEC unveils broad overhaul of residential-care rules, seeks public comment through Jan. 12

The Department of Early Education and Care on Wednesday presented proposed revisions to regulations governing residential and placement programs, saying the package is a modernization effort aimed at clearer, more enforceable rules and more trauma‑informed, culturally responsive care.

"The commissioner asked this group to be aspirational and to think about the regs in a very high standard way," Deputy Commissioner Joe Harker said during the session, describing the review as a modernization that will focus on efficiency, transparency and interagency alignment.

EEC staff said the current rules were last comprehensively revised in 1995 and that the proposed changes touch program definitions, nondiscrimination language, staff training and operational expectations. "We've replaced the use of resident to child," Kelly Buckley, a supervisor in the residential and placement unit, said, noting edits to gender‑neutral language, alignment…