FINAL BILL REPORT

SB 5172

C 78 L 11

Synopsis as Enacted

Brief Description: Authorizing the use of short-term, on-site child care for the children of facility employees.

Sponsors: Senators Brown, Harper, Baumgartner, Kohl-Welles, Keiser, McAuliffe and Kline.

Senate Committee on Human Services & Corrections

House Committee on Early Learning & Human Services

Background: Any person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, or facility that provides child care outside a child's home must be licensed by the Department of Early Learning (DEL). The following are exempt from licensing requirements:

• a blood relative, step-parent or step-sibling; an adoptive parent or that parent's relatives or spouses of any of the persons listed;

• the child's legal guardian;

• persons who care for a neighbor's or friend's child, for less than 24 hours and the person does not provide the care on an on-going, regularly scheduled basis;

• parents on a mutually cooperative basis exchange care of one another's children;

• nursery schools or kindergartens engaged primarily in educational work with preschool children and in which no child is enrolled for more than four hours a day;

• schools, including boarding schools, engaged primarily in education, operate on a definite school year schedule, follow a stated academic curriculum, accept only school-age children and do not accept custody of children;

• seasonal camps of three months or less engaged primarily in recreational or educational activities;

• facilities providing child care for less than 24 hours and the child's parent remains on the premises to participate in activities other than employment;

• agencies that have been in business since 1957 and supported in part by an endowment or trust fund and which does not seek or accept assistance from any state or federal agency;

• an agency operated by local, state, or federal government or an agency located within the boundaries of a federally recognized Indian reservation;

• an agency located on a military base, unless the military authorities have requested that the agency be licensed by DEL; and

• an agency that offers early learning and support services and does not provide child care services on a regular basis.

Summary: A facility operated by a nonprofit entity which provides child care for less than 24 hours and the parent or legal guardian remains on the premises for employment of up to two hours a day is exempt from licensing requirements. To qualify for this exemption, the facility must also operate a licensed child care program in the same facility in another location or at another facility.

Votes on Final Passage: