The availability of quality child care for working families is a persistent problem in Michigan. | Stock photo
The availability of quality child care for working families is a persistent problem in Michigan. | Stock photo
Rep. Jack O’Malley (R-Lake Ann) is calling for the Legislature to take action to avert a major child care crisis in Michigan that is being brought on, in part, through burdensome regulations that have limited the number of providers in the state.
The measures that O’Malley is championing would seek to both address access to quality child care for working families and seek to stop the steady decline in providers brought on by state regulations, according to the Michigan House Republicans website.
“Child care in Michigan is hanging on by a thread,” O’Malley said, according to Michigan House Republicans. “Although it first came as a shock to me, the more I looked into the systematic problems child care providers and working families have communicated to me, this notion could not be more true.”
Rep. Jack O'Malley
| Michigan House Republicans
Measures O’Malley has proposed include increasing the child-provider ratio for home-based child care, permitting family home child care to have seven children per provider instead of six, and group home child care to have 14 children per provider instead of 12. O’Malley is also pushing for increased numbers of children permitted at home-based providers before and after school, with the number increased by three for family home child care and by five for group home child care.
“Something needs to be done -- and quickly -- before we reach a point that is beyond repair,” O’Malley said, according to Michigan House Republicans. “These cost-effective solutions are the product of numerous round tables and work groups with various child care providers who have firsthand experience with the current barriers handicapping child care in Michigan.”
O’Malley’s proposed changes would also give providers a 90-day grace period during which to implement new requirements from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services or the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.
“This is just the beginning of many conversations around this far-reaching issue,” O’Malley told Michigan House Republicans.
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