Child Care Centers and Homes are licensed and inspected by the Child Care Division of the Department of Health Services (DHS). On October 6 DHS released their draft of proposed increases in licensing fees for child care and other facilities. For centers with a capacity of 150 children or greater the fee will go from the present $150 to $13,442, an increase of 8800%. This would begin to affect facilities renewing their license as soon as January.
Child Care centers across Arizona are already struggling with a loss of children due to the general economy, to the DES "waiting list" and to cuts in DES payments. Most are operating at 40-50% of capacity. Some are closing. This fee increase will have a negative impact on small businesses, faith based providers, non-profits, parents as consumers who pay more, and the communities that will certainly lose access to child care that meets health and safety standards. The fees will likely increase unregulated care.
What can we all do? "Write to the Governor to request that she suspend the increases immediately and use federal stimulus or other funds to cover the cost of licensing for the next three years. This will allow sufficient time for a thoughtful process, working with early care and education programs, to determine the amount of fee increases (which we acknowledge will be increased), sufficient notice and time for programs to generate the fees that will be due, and hopefully, for the economy to recover."
Thank you to ACCA and AzAEYC for leading this communications effort.