Bill Caption

Relating to child-to-caregiver ratios and group sizes in licensed day-care centers and reporting certain information related to child safety.

Fiscal Notes

From the LBB: No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated. 

Bill Analysis

Current process allows for DFPS, by rule, to do a comprehensive review of child to caregiver ratios every six years and change those ratios. This bill would require the Department of Family and Protective Services to collect and report data regarding the child-to-caregiver ratios in licensed day-care centers as well as the number of confirmed serious injuries and fatalities of children 4 years old and younger that occurred between September 1, 2017 and August 31, 2018, the number of investigations the department has conducted in that same period of time involving a child 4 years old or younger that were assigned the highest priority or second highest priority, and the total number of violations found by the department in that period of time.

The department would be required to give a report of the above information to the legislature annually, and require the commissioner of HHSC to use the collected data to determine whether to modify child-to-caregiver ratio standards for licensed day-care centers. 

Finally the bill allows the executive commissioner to change the ratios as he or she sees fit, by rule, without legislative approval which is a continuation of current agency rule.

Vote Recommendation Notes

Although this bill has the good intention of preventing child injury and death, we have concerns that the results of the study will be used to make child-teacher adjustments without legislative approval. The study and data collection is mostly already being done and the information is critical for assessing childcare needs. However, the executive commissioner should not have the power to change ratios without legislative approval given the large scale economic impact that changing ratios has. This violates our principle of limited government and if this rule making provision would be removed we would move to neutral.