The City of Raleigh is planning to increase capacity for home childcare facilities and make it easier for childcare centers to open.
At the City Council Meeting Tuesday, council members unanimously voted to move forward with changes to childcare ordinances, citing improvements to affordability and accessibility.
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The city said there are 57 home childcare facilities and 167 commercial childcare centers.
What are the changes
The city's current ordinance allows home daycare facilities to enroll a maximum of 8 children. The city wants to change that to a maximum of 15, in accordance with state law.
The home childcare facility would still have to follow staff-to-child ratios and zoning requirements like more detailed code reviews and inspections.
The city is also proposing a change to who home childcare facilities could hire. Right now, city ordinance says a home childcare facility can only hire a resident or family member who lives in the home. The proposed change would allow the owner to hire non-residents.
"As you increase those enrollment numbers from eight up towards 15, additional staffing is going to be required by the state," ____ said in the city council meeting Tuesday. "It would be very difficult to meet that if only their family members who also live in the home could be the employees."
The third change would make the process to open a commercial childcare center easier. The city wants to eliminate or change the special use permit commercial childcare centers must obtain before opening.
Right now, commercial childcare centers have to go through a nearly three month process to get a special use permit. The change would work to make that shorter and less costly.
The city said it would still draft up certain requirements for these facilities.
Affordability, accessibility, safety
Wake County Smart Start, a nonprofit that advocates for accessibility to childcare, said finding the right childcare that is affordable for families is the biggest barrier right now.
"For many of those families, childcare can consume a significant portion of their paycheck because they can't afford it," Carol Orji, the Director of Early Childhood Initiatives with Wake County Smart Start, said.
Orji said the changes could break a barrier for childcare facilities and families.
"These changes are important because improving childcare access is not just building big, large childcare centers," she said. "All they're asking is to make it easier for the existing ones to grow and for people that want to enter the market, it also gives them the opportunity to do that."
Raleigh City Council Member Megan Patton said Tuesday night that the city's proposed changes could help lower rates.
"I think this will add a level of flexibility and hopefully allow providers to offer their rates more affordably for families or people who wish to start families," Patton said.
WRAL News asked the Department of Health and Human Services how the department would ensure home childcare facilities are following safety protocol if they chose to increase capacity and whether they have the ability to keep up with inspections and licensing if the city speeds up procedures for commercial childcare facilities.
DHHS responded to our questions with the following statement:
"Local ordinances may establish requirements for child care facilities, including capacity-related standards, however child care facilities must also comply with all applicable state licensing requirements and regulations."
We have reached back to DHHS for more information.
There's no word on when the city will discuss these changes next.