The Department has amended the Child Care Facilities rules through exempt rulemaking under authority given by SB1315.  The rulemaking streamlines child care facility licensing by deleting unnecessary and obsolete provisions, clarifying requirements, addressing technical changes, and reorganizing the rules, consistent with statutory authority, industry standards, and Department policies.  Changes conform to rulemaking format and style requirements.  The new rules became effective on September 30, 2010.

The Department began amending the Child Care Facilities rules under requirements for regular rulemaking.  The Department met with a Work Group consisting of individuals from stakeholder groups, developed draft rules, solicited informal comments about the draft rules, and prepared a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for these rules.  On May 6, 2010, the Governor signed SB1315, which changed requirements for child care facilities and the Department.  SB1315 became effective on July 29, 2010 and gives the Department exempt rulemaking authority to amend the rules for child care facility licensing for one year from the effective date.

The Department used the draft rules prepared for the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking as a starting point upon which to incorporate changes required by SB1315 when creating the exempt rules.  Before completing a Notice of Exempt Rulemaking for the rules, the Department held two public hearings at which Department staff received public comments about the child care facility licensing rules.  The Department considered the comments received in completing the Notice of Exempt Rulemaking that was filed with the Office of the Secretary of State on July 29, 2010. The Notice was published in the Arizona Administrative Register (page 1564) on August 20, 2010.

A copy of the Notice of Exempt Rulemaking and a summary of the changes contained in the exempt rules are available below.

You may access the most current information by clicking on the PDF files below. In order to download the PDF files Acrobat Reader™ is required.

Rulemaking Updates

Exempt Rulemaking  ^{8/26/10  (page 1564)}

Exempt Rulemaking Timeline ^7/16/10

Summary of Exempt Rules Changes ^8/2/10