Child care providers seek clarity on proposed regulation changes

The Mississippi Department of Health’s Child Care Licensure Bureau is reviewing proposed regulations that it shelved after an uproar among child care providers.

The modern regulations, as presented, include requiring facilities to give representatives from the licensing agency full access to the facility and everyone in it, requiring facilities to get the licensing agency’s permission to make any changes, including to hours, renovations, etc; and directors would have to be on-site for 75% of a facility’s operating hours. According to Mississippi child care provider Debbie Ellis, that would amount to over 40 hours a week.

“Every one of the directors I’ve spoken to who object to these revisions are involved in and support and provide quality childcare,” said Ellis, who owns and operates The Learning Center in Greenwood. “But it must be viable, or it’s no good to anyone.”

Greg Flynn, the Health Department’s media relations director, said the proposed changes were withdrawn based on “helpful comments we received during the oral proceeding that would have resulted in changes we agreed should be made. Since the Secretary of State no longer allows filing with changes and because our changes would have been substantive, they were pulled.”

He said many of these changes also were made because of federal requirements.

Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

Ellis is the founder of Delta Licensed Providers, a group that advocates for child care providers in the Delta. Ellis detailed her opposition to specific rules in posts on her blog. She and other providers argue that many of the proposed revisions would have been financially harmful to their businesses, to children and families, and given the licensing agency too much power. 

“I want you to understand that I am not asking for deregulation,” she explained, “I am asking for full disclosure of the current regulation and full disclosure of any proposed revision to those regulations. That’s not too much to ask. That is, in fact, the law.”

In addition to the proposed revisions themselves, providers are not content with what they call a lack of transparency and consideration.

The licensing agency filed the proposed changes on Nov. 15, 2024. According to Mississippi Administrative Procedures, the licensing agency should have sent out a notice within three days about the changes to each person who signed up to receive notices of proposed rule adoptions.

Ellis, who says she signed up for those notices, says she didn’t learn about the proposed revisions until Dec. 3. That is 18 days after they filed. This was also six days before the virtual hearing for the changes took place. Ellis said she learned about the changes after a different child care provider called her to ask about rumors of a public hearing on modern regulations.

Nancy Koon, who owns The Mustard Seed Preschool and Child Care Center in D’Iberville, said she learned about the revisions on Dec. 3, after her licensing agent forwarded the notice to her. 

“We’re why Americans can work, because we provide childcare, a service that they need to work,” said Koons. “We’re not just gonna sit back and let you shove things down our throat.”

Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

According to Ellis, 141 child care providers attended the virtual hearing for public comment on Dec. 9. The licensing agency set up a place to allow providers to submit written comments about the proposed revisions until Dec. 13. Ellis said the submission form was closed when she went to submit hers at 4:21 p.m. that day.

Nicole Barnes, director of child care licensure for the Health Department, acknowledged that the proposals did not have input from the Small Business Regulatory Committee or the Child Care Advisory Council. 

Ellis argued that such regulations also should’ve included an economic impact report, which is required if adhering to the proposed changes would have a net cost of over $100,000 for child care providers. Barnes explained that they did not, so no report was needed.

Barnes explained that the revisions were done to fall in line with the health and safety standards for the Child Care and Development Fund Block Grant Act. The licensing agency withdrew the proposals on Dec. 16 to give child care providers more time to comment. They plan to present revised revisions to the Board of Health in April, based on providers’ comments.

“Although the procedures set forth in the Ms. Administrative Procedures Act were followed, the MSDH Bureau of Child Care Licensure understands that they did not allow for full transparency in January. The bureau will ensure full transparency prior to presenting the proposed changes in April,” Barnes said in an email.

Ellis also challenged the existing rules on spacing requirements for facilities. None of the proposed regulations included a change to space requirements, according to the Health Department. But Ellis argues that the rule does not include room furnishings, and that it should be for 50 square feet of total space per child. She said 35 square feet of “usable space” plus 15 feet of “non-usable space” equals 50 square feet total.

“To properly address the needed availability of quality, affordable child care in Mississippi, the full effect of ‘usable space’ square footage requirements should be known, published and clearly understood so that developers and architects may be confident that approved plans for construction do guarantee the number of children that a new facility may serve and that the business, at the very least, has the opportunity to be viable,” she stated in an email.

Barnes disputed this claim. “MSDH Child Care Licensure does include room furnishings with usable space in the square footage calculation of a room. In measuring facilities for square footage, usable space means space measured on the inside, wall to wall dimensions,” she said.  ‘If furnishings are size and age appropriate, then it is considered part of the usable space.’”

Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

Biz Harris, executive director of the Mississippi Early Learning Alliance, works directly with child care providers to advocate for better early learning education. Harris works with child care providers across the state, and described their reactions to the proposed changes.

 “I think that was concerning to folks, that if felt like these huge changes were being made to the thing that is their livelihood, and they were given basically no time to review the regulatory changes or to know whether or not their feedback or thoughts would be given,” she said.

The Child Care Advisory Council’s next meeting is Feb 21, 2025. It will include a discussion about the regulation changes. 

Update 2/9/25: This story has been updated to include a fuller explanation of Ellis’ arguments about proposed space regulations.

Update 2/10/25: This story has been updated to include a subsequent comment from the Health Department’s media relations director about why the regulations were withdrawn.