A set of new draft standards for child care licensing in Minnesota cover a lot of ground, from regulating play area safety, to training for child care providers.

This week, in-home child care providers in southwest Minnesota said the proposed standards would put an extra burden on them.

“It’s a lot for one person to do,” one provider said during an online discussion of proposed schedules for sanitizing toys and equipment. Child care providers said spending more time each day on tasks like sanitizing, or filling out forms or documentation, would take time away from caring for children.

“To add all this in is just adding more work,” another provider said.

Leaders and presenters at a virtual listening session Monday night said it was important to hear providers’ questions and concerns.

“We know there’s some work to be done on the drafts, and we want to hear from you,” said Angela Urbanek, a policy analyst working with the Minnesota Department of Human Services licensing division.

The virtual listening session was part of a series of events organized by the Southwest Initiative Foundation this week. SWIF held both virtual and in-person events to get feedback on proposed new licensing standards for child care centers and in-home child care providers. In-person sessions were held in Willmar, Granite Falls and Worthington.

The virtual session started with a short presentation outlining the process DHS is following to update child care licensing standards in Minnesota. In 2021, the state Legislature directed DHS to work with the National Association for Regulatory Administration (NARA) to develop new standards. The standards were supposed to be grounded in national best practices, protect children’s health and safety, and be child-centered, family-friendly and fair to providers, presenters said.

The draft standards were made public in April.

“It is truly a draft,” and not a legislative proposal, Urbanek said.

She said DHS would use public feedback to help make a revised draft that would be proposed to state legislators at their 2025 session.

Most of the virtual listening session was broken up into smaller groups for feedback on different areas of the draft licensing requirements. There were some themes that emerged as providers talked about their concerns. Following some of the requirements would mean spending a lot of time filling out documentation or cleaning, instead of actively caring for children, they said.

Several providers said proposed schedules for daily or weekly sanitizing of toys and equipment would require a lot of time to keep up with, and weren’t realistic for providers trying to keep up with children. There also wasn’t a lot of guidance on which cleaning and sanitizing products were approved to use, they said.

Providers said draft environmental guidelines also included some requirements that would be costly or difficult to follow, like putting mulch or gravel under outdoor play equipment.

“It’s just impractical to have pea rock, sand or mulch all over where I would need it,” one provider said.

Other providers also pointed out that pea rock would be a choking hazard for children.

Draft licensing requirements on how often providers could repeat a training course also drew a lot of comments. Providers said if they were not allowed to repeat a training within a five-year period, there needed to be a way to track what courses they had taken and when.

“It’s one more thing always on my mind,” one provider said.

Facilitators at Monday’s listening session said they plan to make a document summarizing child care providers’ feedback, which will be provided to both DHS and to southwest Minnesota legislators.