We are excited to announce that the updated Child Care Center and School Age Regulations for Licensure are now fully promulgated. Similar to the old regulations, you can find them on the Secretary of States website: https://rules.sos.ri.gov/Regulations/Part/218-70-00-1 or the DHS website under the Regulation section here: https://dhs.ri.gov/regulations
We appreciate all of you who took the time to participate in the public comment period. Many of your suggestions were incorporated into these updates. We strongly encourage you to review the newest regulations to ensure future compliance. We have also updated our guidance document for the regulations and you can find it on the DHS website here: https://dhs.ri.gov/programs-and-services/child-care/child-care-providers/handbooks-forms. Please keep in mind that this is a consistently changing document, so rather than save it to your desktop or print, we would advise you access it using the link so you will always have the updated version. This will be a helpful document to answer any questions you may have with some of these changes. Think of it as the “COVID-19 playbook” for regulations! As always, please also do not hesitate to reach out to your licensor if you are unsure how these updates may impact your program.
We are required to begin monitoring for these regulations once they are promulgated. We have updated our monitoring report and have attached it for your reference. Many of the changes are related to future changes or updates to your program or newly licensed programs. However, if a noncompliance is found that is related to the new regulation, our licensors will indicate that this noncompliance is a result of regulations that went into effect on 11/2/2022. This note will appear in visits completed through 11/30/2022.
This first update to the regulations is one of many we intend to do throughout the next several years. We look forward to your continued partnership in this process. We also understand that change can be difficult so please reach out to your licensor with any concerns or questions you may have.
Thanks so much for your continued hard work!
Nicole Chiello
Assistant Director – Office of Child Care
