By Scott McClallen | The Center Square
Politicians across the aisle and Michigan’s business community agree the access and price of childcare is holding back a COVID-19 economic recovery as many young professionals choose between a career and a family.
The Families, Children, and Seniors Committee heard testimony on five bipartisan bills aiming to drop the cost and broaden accessibility to child care.
House Bill 5041 seeks to modify the adult-to-child ratio for in-home child care providers by raising the limit from 1-6 staff members per minor child to 1-7 staff members per minor child.
The bill would provide that a family child care home or group child care home is automatically eligible for increased capacity if it holds a current license, has been licensed to operate for at least 29 consecutive months in which it's renewed a license and has received one or more unrelated minor children for supervision during that licensed period.
HB 5042 aims to modify licensing requirements for a child care center, group child care home, or family to require disclosure of ownership interests so if one center received violations, it can’t change its name and switch buildings to rid those violations.
HB 5043 would create a new act to require the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) to establish, upon appropriation, family child care networks for home-based child care providers in every region of the state. That framework would have to include connection to peers, business, operations, and program quality support, as well as training and technical assistance.
Rep. Kelly Breen, D-Novi, called the bill a “one-stop-shop” for childcare providers so they can focus on kids instead of paperwork.
Under the bill, MDE would have to establish a family child care network in every region in the state requiring all networks to participate in a statewide community of practice, professional development, data collection and evaluation to measure success, and require networks to connect to the state’s existing child care infrastructure and its quality and licensing system.
“We need to make these jobs more manageable so these family childcare networks will provide extra support to home-based childcare business owners… We want them focused on caring for our children and not necessarily navigating red tape and other issues that pop up during the day,” Breen said.