KDHE staff brief Systems Improvement Team on House Bill 2045 implementation, licensing changes and new IT system

Derek Flerlug, bureau director for family health at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, told the Systems Improvement Team that House Bill 2045 establishes an Office of Early Childhood to consolidate early-childhood programs now spread across multiple agencies and to streamline service delivery.

The office, Derek said, will move several programs into a single administrative structure and the bill dictates regulatory changes KDHE must adopt. "The intent of the bill was to not decrease licensed capacity at all," he said, urging providers to read the enrolled bill language and noting KDHE has drafted regulation updates and submitted them to the attorney general's office for review. He added that formal rulemaking will include a 60-day public comment and public hearing period before adoption.

Derek said an executive director for the new office will be appointed by the governor and that a transition window for programs to migrate is built into the law. He noted the position posting is live and the appointee cannot start until Jan. 1; the operational transition window runs through June 30. The governor's transition director Zach Vincent is coordinating broader implementation questions.

During questions, one participant asked whether the bill changes staff-to-child ratios, specifically whether one provider could care for four infants. Derek clarified the bill itself does not automatically change statewide ratio policy; instead the language creates training and qualification requirements for providers who choose to serve that many infants. In response he said KDHE is preparing targeted training expectations for providers who elect to serve higher infant counts.

Derek also addressed changes to immunization exemption language in the bill. He said licensing practice remains the same—providers must maintain either documented immunization records or exemptions on file—but statutory wording now favors exemptions described as a "closely held belief" rather than denominational membership. "Our job is to ensure that the children's have exemptions on file if they do have one. And if they don't, they have to have their immunization record on file," he said.

Separately, Jarvis Dolman, KDHE director of operations for Chalker Licensing and the SIT meeting lead, briefed the group on KDHE's licensing IT modernization. He said the agency is retiring a legacy system known internally as Clara and replacing it with a Licensing Network in Kansas (LINK). Work with the vendor began Jan. 29, 2024; KDHE scheduled testing to begin in the weeks after the meeting with a roughly 60-day testing window and a target go-live later in the winter subject to testing outcomes and required oversight. Jarvis said KDHE will do provider testing and partner pilots before broad rollout and will share schedules and outreach materials.

KDHE staff told attendees the modernization project has legislative and Kansas IT office oversight, that public documents about oversight are available, and that the agency will try to be transparent about timelines.

Next steps: KDHE will post rulemaking materials for public comment, continue coordination with the governor's transition team about program moves into the new office, and proceed with LINK testing and targeted provider engagement ahead of go-live.