BISMARCK On Tuesday, Gov. Hoeven signed House Bill 1472, which will allow child care providers to have more say in the rules set for the industry.
It's the first major child care bill of the session to be signed into law. The list below describes some of the things that have happened so far this session.
House Bill 1472
This bill creates a seven-member early childhood services advisory committee. Four members of that committee would come from for-profit child care businesses and three from nonprofit ones. The committee would work with the Department of Human Services to streamline rules governing child care services.
Rep. Rick Berg, R-Fargo, who introduced the bill, said having people who work in the industry help set the rules could result in more expansions of day-care centers, more startups and less paperwork and bureaucracy for day-care center owners. The rules have not been rewritten in about nine years, he said.
Amendments to the bill make it so the council would last for about two years and would pay up to $100 per day so that day care representatives could hire substitutes while they went to the meetings. The total $20,776 for the biennium is included in the budget bill for the Department of Human Services, House Bill 1012.
As mentioned above, the bill has been signed into law.
House Bill 1418
This bill has passed both the House and the Senate and is on its way for the governor's signature.
In its original form, the bill would have provided close to $14.6 million for child care worker training and grants to expand or start new child care centers.
According to Rep. Kathy Hawken, R-Fargo, who sponsored the bill, it has been amended to use federal stimulus money and other funding rather than drawing from the state general fund. The bill authorizes about $3.6 million in federal stimulus money to be spent on the projects.
"It's a start," Hawken said. "In two years, hopefully, we'll have the proof of the need for this."
Hawken said child care workers interested in learning more about the programs should contact Child Care Resources and Referral.
Senate Bill 2225
This bill provides state grants for new or expanding day-care centers The bill contained the original $3.5 million recommended in the executive budget but was amended down to $1.75 million.
According to conference committee member Sen. Dick Dever, R-Bismarck, about $1.25 million of that money could be used for things like egress windows or fencing. The remaining $500,000 would be used for technical assistance, like developing business plans.
Dever said there has been some talk of amending the bill to allow the state commerce department to recover some of its administrative costs. Other amendments might broaden the way the technical assistance grants could be used. The conference committee for this bill will meet again on Friday.
House Bill 1090
This bill deals with how much child care assistance low-income parents can receive while they attend college.
Previously, the child care assistance has been extended only to parents seeking a two-year degree. The original bill would allow parents seeking a four-year degree to get two years of child care assistance, as well.
Dever, who sits on this conference committee as well, said the Senate amended the four-year provision out of the bill. The House acceded to the Senate amendments in the conference committee, but the full House rejected the report on Wednesday. It has been sent back to the conference committee for more discussion.
The House version of the bill, with its provision for four-year degrees, would cost about $1.5 million more than the Senate version.
Senate Bill 2162
According to Rep. Kari Conrad, D-Minot, this bill deals with criminal history background checks for day-care providers.
There are about 18,000 child care workers in the state, and there is a turnover rate of about 25 to 30 percent. Conrad said it would cost the state about $1.24 million this biennium to get the program going and close to $1 million per biennium afterwards.
Some of the full-time positions needed to do the background checks would be with the attorney general's budget but aren't currently included in that budget bill. Also, child care workers who don't want to have a background check can self-declare that they meet the standards laid out in the bill.