The Maine State Legislature has unanimously approved a bill increasing the number of children for whom childcare providers may be responsible before they are required to be licensed.
Under current state law, providers may only care for up to two children other than their own before they need to obtain a license through the state.
LD 202 raised this threshold to three while also adding further nuance based on the age and relationship between the children under supervision.
If two of the children are siblings, an unlicensed provider may look after as many as four children at one time. No more than three of the children under a provider’s care may be younger than two years old.
Although the age related restrictions were not included in the original version of this legislation, they were added as part of a unanimous amendment proposed by the Health and Human Services Committee.
Bill sponsor Sen. Marianne Moore (R-Washington) explained in her testimony introducing LD 202 that this bill was based on a proposal brought forward during the previous legislative session and aims to address Maine’s ongoing childcare shortage.
“One of the top concerns of expecting parents is the availability and affordability of child care,” said Sen. Moore. “The scarcity of adequate child care forces parents to spend countless hours calling numerous facilities or child care providers in their area so they can be added to waitlist after waitlist, with no guarantee they will ever get a coveted spot.”
Moore further explained that increasing the capacity for unlicensed childcare providers is especially important in Maine’s rural areas “where population density doesn’t support larger childcare centers.”
In response to concerns that raising this cap may endanger children, Moore noted that this does not represent a “drastic” threshold increase and brings it into alignment with the majority of states that allow unlicensed providers to care for four or more children at a time.
Testifying in opposition to LD 202 were representatives of the childcare industry, highlighting the potential negative implications associated with raising this threshold.
“We understand that families need access to more child care. Unfortunately, compromising around issues of health and safety isn’t the way to grow the child care sector,” said the Maine Children’s Alliance. “The number one concern for parents, whether they live in Aroostook or York county, whether they live in a small rural community, or the city of Portland, is their child’s safety.”
A representative of the Maine Developmental Disabilities Council also offered testimony in opposition to this bill on the basis that unlicensed childcare providers may not be properly trained “in identifying typical developing milestones so that developmental delays can be caught quickly.”
“Without oversight and opportunities for training, providers can’t fulfill their duties in this sphere, and there is a great risk that some children will be left behind,” they said.
This is not the first time that Maine has allowed unlicensed providers to care for a greater number of children.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Janet Mills (D) allowed unlicensed providers to look after three children other than their own for a period of one year.
According to the Maine Policy Institute (MPI), there were “no measurable health and
safety issues” associated with this increased cap.
“Yet, nonsensically, this order was both instituted during the pandemic and
rescinded because of ‘health and safety,'” MPI said. “If the Mills administration felt that this was a safe measure during a pandemic, it is clearly also safe when the pandemic is over.”
“Parents have a vested interest in ensuring their children receive high-quality care, and they will continue to choose providers based on trust, reputation, and word-of-mouth recommendations,” argued MPI. “Licensing mandates should not be a substitute for personal accountability and community-based standards that naturally regulate quality of care.”
Following the Health and Human Services Committee’s unanimous Ought to Pass as Amended report, both the House and Senate advanced LD 202 without taking a roll call vote.
Gov. Mills signed LD 202 into law on May 29.
Disclosure: The Maine Wire is a project of the Maine Policy Institute.
