Subdivision 1. Reporting requirements. Beginning on February 1, 2018, and no later than February 1 of each year thereafter, the commissioner of human services shall provide a report on the status of child care in Minnesota to the chairs and ranking minority members of the legislative committees with jurisdiction over child care.

Subd. 2. Contents of report. (a) The report must include the following:

(1) summary data on trends in child care center and family child care capacity and availability throughout the state, including the number of centers and programs that have opened and closed and the geographic locations of those centers and programs;

(2) a description of any changes to statutes, administrative rules, or agency policies and procedures that were implemented in the year preceding the report;

(3) a description of the actions the department has taken to address or implement the recommendations from the Legislative Task Force on Access to Affordable Child Care Report dated January 15, 2017, including but not limited to actions taken in the areas of:

(i) encouraging uniformity in implementing and interpreting statutes, administrative rules, and agency policies and procedures relating to child care licensing and access;

(ii) improving communication with county licensors and child care providers regarding changes to statutes, administrative rules, and agency policies and procedures, ensuring that information is directly and regularly transmitted;

(iii) providing notice to child care providers before issuing correction orders or negative actions relating to recent changes to statutes, administrative rules, and agency policies and procedures;

(iv) implementing confidential, anonymous communication processes for child care providers to ask questions and receive prompt, clear answers from the department;

(v) streamlining processes to reduce duplication or overlap in paperwork and training requirements for child care providers; and

(vi) compiling and distributing information detailing trends in the violations for which correction orders and negative actions are issued;

(4) a description of the department's efforts to cooperate with counties while addressing and implementing the task force recommendations;

(5) summary data on child care assistance programs including but not limited to state funding and numbers of families served; and

(6) summary data on family child care correction orders, including:

(i) the number of licensed family child care provider appeals or requests for reconsideration of correction orders to the Department of Human Services;

(ii) the number of family child care correction order appeals or requests for reconsideration that the Department of Human Services grants; and

(iii) the number of family child care correction order appeals or requests for reconsideration that the Department of Human Services denies.

(b) The commissioner may offer recommendations for legislative action.

Subd. 3. Sunset. This section expires February 2, 2020.

History: 1Sp2017 c 6 art 9 s 10