Senate Bill S7949

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S7949

SPONSOR: RYAN C
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the social services law, in relation to allowing child
day care providers an extension of time to make necessary changes or
accommodations to their facility to meet licensing requirements

 
PURPOSE:

This bill aims to make the creation of child day care centers more effi-
cient by improving the licensing process.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends paragraph(d) of subdivision 2 of section 390 of the
social services law is amended by adding a new subparagraph (iii) that
extends the period in which prospective child day care providers are
given to make necessary changes or accommodations and mandates that the
Office of Children and Families shall have the authority to grant
further extensions.
              

Section 2 establishes the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The cost of providing child day care has steadily risen in the preceding
years. This crucial family service has become prohibitively expensive
for parents and represents just another barrier to starting a family.
The rise in cost is partly to blame on the lack of availability of child
day care providers. The difficulties associated with starting a child
day care center are so great as to be overly burdensome for some
prospective providers.

An associated difficulty with starting child day care centers is the
licensing period. Currently, prospective providers are subject to an
inspection of the potential child day care facility within 90 days of
filing for a license. If the inspection finds the facility in need of
modification or accommodation, then the prospective provider only has
what remains of that 90-day period to remedy any issues, regardless of
scope. If they fail to remedy the issue within those 90 days, the entire
licensing process restarts. This bill remedies this issue by extending
that 90-day period to allow prospective providers to fix any issues that
arose during inspection without having to restart the entire process. If
the issues have still not been fixed within the extended window, the
Office of Children and Families shall have the authority to grant addi-
tional extensions as necessary at their discretion.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2023-24: S2499/Mannion

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.