We are thrilled to welcome Kim Hunt to our DCYF FCC Licensing team. Many of you may know Kim from her many years as a county licensor with Stearns County. Her years of experience and insight as a licensor is sure to be a great asset to our team. Here is a little bio from Kim so we can all get to know her better:
Hi, my name is Kim Hunt. I am excited to begin my work as an FCC Licensing Consultant. I’ve worked at the county level for the past 19 years with almost 16 years of that in licensing. This included both child care and foster care licensing. Prior to that I worked in adoption and foster care with a private agency.
When I’m not working, I am my boys’ biggest fan, cheering them on at their various activities while my husband coaches. My family also enjoys road trips (stopping at random roadside attractions), camping, and always a few trips to Duluth every year.
I have enjoyed working with and supporting families and providers over the years and look forward to working with and supporting you all.
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DCYF is responsible for collecting and reporting information regarding serious injuries that occur in licensed family child care programs. This information is collected on a quarterly basis.
Please use this link to submit your county’s serious injury information for Quarter 2 (April 1, 2025 – June 30, 2025). If you have already submitted your information to DCYF triage, thank you.
The Child Care Development Block Grant requires states compile and submit information regarding complaints in licensed family child care programs. The information is collected on a quarterly basis and is referred to as Quarterly Progress Reports (QPR).
Please use this link to submit your county’s QPR data for Quarter 2 (April 1, 2025 – June 30, 2025). If you have already submitted your information to DCYF triage, thank you.
DCYF FCC Licensing is requesting your feedback about your experience as a new FCC licensing worker. Please complete this brief survey.
Your feedback is valuable and will be used to develop and refine DCYF FCC training.
Family child care (FCC) license holders have the option to grant licensing workers access to their Develop Learning Records to verify training requirements. To do so, licensing workers must have Develop accounts and be established as users. Minnesota IT Services requires Develop users to log in at least every 30 days to maintain access. Develop sends a courtesy reminder email at the 30-day mark and then automatically deactivates accounts at the 60-day mark. Please log in to Develop regularly to maintain access.
If your FCC user role has been deactivated, you will need to provide rationale for reinstatement to Alison Rahn, DCYF FCC Licensing Supervisor, at alison.rahn@state.mn.us. If there are general issues with your Develop account (password reset, how to access, etc.), contact the Develop help desk at support@develophelp.zendesk.com.
A question was asked during the most recent licensor call about annual visits during the first year of a license.
Guidance provided during call: Annual visits after prelicensure – An annual visit does not need to be completed the year an applicant becomes licensed because their licensing study visit meets the annual licensing visit requirement. Annual visits will begin the next calendar year.
There was a request that we re-share the previous pro-rated training guidance to determine training requirements that first year:
Quarter 1: January 1 – March 31. If a license is granted or a caregiver begins working in a program between these dates, then the LH(s), primary provider of care, and second adult caregiver(s) must complete 16 hours of annual ongoing training prior to December 31st of that same calendar year. This training is in addition to any training that was taken prior to the issuance of the license and prior to the second adult caregiver beginning to work in the program.
Quarter 2: April 1 – June 30. If a license holder is granted a license or a second adult caregiver begins working in a program between these dates, then the LH(s), primary provider of care, and second adult caregiver(s) must complete 12 hours of annual ongoing training prior to December 31st of that same calendar year. This training is in addition to any training that was taken prior to the issuance of the license and prior to the caregiver beginning to work in the program. The 12 hours of annual training must include:
- A review of the program’s emergency preparedness plan;
- If the program is serving a child with a known allergy, a review of the child’s allergy information;
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At least two hours of child development and learning or behavior guidance training as specified in MS, section 70, subd. 3;
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Reducing the Risk of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death and Reducing the Risk of Abusive Head Trauma as specified in MS, section 70, subd. 6; and
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An active supervision course as specified in MS, section 70, subd. 10.
Quarter 3: July 1 – September 30. If a license holder is granted a license or a caregiver begins working in a program between these dates, then the LH(s), primary provider of care, and second adult caregiver(s) must complete 8 hours of annual ongoing training prior to December 31st of that same calendar year. This training is in addition to any training that was taken prior to the issuance of the license and prior to the caregiver beginning to work in the program. The 8 hours of annual training must include:
- A review of the program’s emergency preparedness plan;
- If the program is serving a child with a known allergy, a review of the child’s allergy information;
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At least two hours of child development and learning or behavior guidance training as specified in MS, section B.70, subdivision 3;
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Reducing the Risk of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death and Reducing the Risk of Abusive Head Trauma as specified in MS, section 70, subd. 6; and
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An active supervision course as specified in MS, section 70, subd. 10.
Quarter 4: October 1 – December 31. If a license holder is granted a license or a second adult caregiver begins working in a program between these dates, then the LH(s), primary provider of care, and second adult caregiver(s) must complete 4 hours of annual ongoing training in that year prior to December 31st of that same calendar year. This training is in addition to any training that was taken prior to the issuance of the license and prior to the caregiver beginning to work in the program. The 4 hours of annual training must include:
- A review of the program’s emergency preparedness plan;
- If the program is serving a child with a known allergy, a review of the child’s allergy information;
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At least two hours of child development and learning or behavior guidance training as specified in MS, section 70, subd. 3; and
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An active supervision course as specified in MS, section 70, subd. 10.
ALL Quarters: Additionally, regardless of when the license is granted, or when a primary provider of care or second adult caregiver begins providing care:
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Pediatric First Aid training and Pediatric CPR training must remain current as defined in MS, section 142B.70, subdivisions 4 and 5; and
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Prior to transporting a child, BEST training must remain current as defined in MS, section 70, subd. 7.
The regular 2025 legislative session ended on May 19, 2025. A special session was held in June for the legislature to complete its work. Communication was recently sent to family child care providers and licensed child care centers providing a brief overview of the licensing changes.
A full implementation plan outlining all of the legislative changes for family child care is still being developed. Once complete, information will be provided. As a reminder, past implementation plans, from prior years, are archived on the Family Child Care webpage.
Recap of Engagement on Draft 2
Thank you to everyone who participated in providing input on the second draft of child care licensing standards! Throughout the 53 meetings, in-person sessions, and virtual workshops we hosted between February – June 2025, our team learned a lot about your concerns, ideas, and hopes for the next draft of licensing standards. We also just closed the survey and are eager to dig into the over 2,000 responses that were submitted on the draft licensing standards from family child care and child care center stakeholders.
Whether you participated by submitting a survey response, attending a virtual or in-person session, or writing into our team inbox, please know that our team is hard at work pulling together and reviewing all of this feedback to inform the next draft of standards, which will be publicly released in January 2026.
A special thank you as well to the Initiative Foundations and the Office of the Family Child Care Ombudsperson for partnering with us to host several of these sessions. Your support, brainpower, and community connections were essential to making this community engagement effort a success.
New Agency, Same Project Team
Our Child Care Regulation Modernization team has now moved from the MN Department of Human Services (DHS) to the MN Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF). Our shared inbox email has been updated to ccregmodernization.dcyf@state.mn.us.
The project team and our work remain the same, but we are housed in a new agency with new leadership. In addition, we have a new supervisor: Amy Hamma. Amy is the new supervisor of the Operations, Policy, and Analytics team within the DCYF Office of Inspector General.
Amy is joining DCYF from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs where she served in roles in field operations, coordination of Office of Inspector General and Government Accountability Office audits, financial management
and veterans’ benefits programs. Amy has a Master of Public Policy degree from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and is a graduate of the Presidential Management Fellowship program.
We look forward to working with Amy and all of you as we continue moving forward with the Modernization project.
The State of Minnesota continues to prepare the Provider Hub and Agency Hub for family child care (FCC) providers and county licensing staff.
In August, all Minnesota FCC license holders will have Provider Hub accounts created for them and be able to log in to the online tool. FCC providers will not be able to manage their license information in the Provider Hub at this time but will have the option to manage their Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) registration information in the online tool —consult the FCC Licensing and CCAP sections below for details.
FCC Licensing in the Provider Hub and Agency Hub — Update on Launch
We previously communicated that family child care (FCC) licensing would tentatively launch in the Provider Hub and Agency Hub this summer. We’re adjusting this timeframe to support a successful experience for you and providers. We’re currently determining when the launch will occur. We understand changing timeframes may cause stress and frustration. We appreciate your patience.
Information we do have was sent to county licensing staff via email on Monday July 8. Review that message as a webpage here.
- Here’s a new resource to assist you in sharing up-to-date, accurate information during conversations with providers: Provider Hub FCC Licensing | Summer 2025 Update.
- A provider-focused update was sent to FCC license holders via email on Tuesday, July 8. Somali, Hmong and Spanish translations of that update are underway; we’ll share these translated versions with FCC license holders via email when they’re ready.
Child Care Assistance Program in the Provider Hub — Available to FCC Providers in August
Starting in August, Minnesota licensed family child care (FCC) providers may use the Provider Hub to manage Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) information. This includes registering, renewing, making changes to and reviewing CCAP information and notices. Minnesota licensed FCC providers will not be able to use the Provider Hub to manage their license information or participate in the Great Start Compensation Support Payment Program at this time. For more details, consult CCAP’s July newsletter as a webpage here.
If providers have questions about CCAP, please direct them to the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) CCAP Provider Support Team at ccap.providers.dcyf@state.mn.us or 651-431-4848.
Connect with the Provider Hub and Agency Hub Team
We’re in the process of refreshing the ways we connect with current and future users of the Provider Hub and Agency Hub, including county licensing staff. This includes new virtual events, webpages, newsletters, email inboxes, and human-centered design methodologies (i.e., testing with users). Our goal is to have the right channels in place so we can deliver the right information to the right people in a timely, targeted and transparent manner.
We encourage you and providers to subscribe to the Provider Hub newsletter and visit the Provider Hub webpage. We’ll share details as these other updates are implemented in the Provider Hub newsletter. We’ll also work with the FCC state licensing team to verify we have an updated list of county licensing staff, so we can manually connect you to the Agency Hub engagement channels relevant for your work.
Questions? Feedback?
You’re welcome to send comments and questions to the Provider Hub and Agency Hub team at ccproviderhub.dhs@state.mn.us.
ELICI Training
Statewide FCC ELICI Monthly training is now scheduled the 4th Monday of each month from 2:30 -3:30 p.m.
Invites have been sent out thru August of 2026. If you need an invite, please send an email to FCC triage.
August’s ELICI Monthly Training
ELICI Monthly Training: 2:30-3:30 PM, Monday, 08.25.2025
This month’s topic will be:
ELICI Expectations – TIS: Working through a TIS using the ELICI checklist. Training will include instruction and case examples.
August 2025
1st Friday Supervisor Call: 12 - 2 PM, Friday, 08.01.2025
Statewide FCC Office Hours with DCYF: 10 - 11 AM, Tuesday, 08.12.2025
3rd Thursday Licensor Call: 1 - 2 PM Thursday, 08.21.2025
Statewide FCC Office Hours with DCYF: 10 - 11 AM, Tuesday, 08.26.2025
Foundations
Foundations Training Part 1/8- 2 hours: 9 - 11 AM, Monday, 08.18.2025
Foundations Training Part 2/8 - 2 hours: 9 - 11 AM, Tuesday, 08.19.2025
Foundations Training Part 3/8- 2 hours: 9 - 11 AM, Wednesday, 08.20.2025
Foundations Training Part 4/8 - 2 hours: 9 - 11 AM, Thursday, 08.21.2025
Foundations Training Part 5/8 - 2 hours: 9 - 11 AM, Friday, 08.22.2025
Foundations Training Part 6/8 - 2 hours: 9 - 11 AM, Monday, 08.25.2025
Foundations Training Part 7/8 - 2 hours: 9 - 11 AM, Tuesday, 08.26.2025
Foundations Training Part 8/8 - 2 hours: 9 - 11 AM, Wednesday, 08.27.2025
Foundations Training ELICI Onboarding: 2 hours - 9 - 11 AM, Thursday, 08.28.2025
Foundations Training ELICI Onboarding: 2 hours - 9 - 11 AM, Friday, 08.29.2025
New process for registering for licensor trainings
We are excited to announce that our upcoming August Foundations Training is available for sign-up through TrainLink.
To register for the class, go to the TrainLink homepage and select “Licensing” under the “Learning Centers” section. Enter the key word “Foundations” and select the August class. To register you need your unique key. If you are not sure what your unique key is, or you are new to licensing, please check with your supervisor.
We will continue to keep you up to date on how to register for other trainings as we transition from contacting triage to using TrainLink.
TrainLink Home Page
As always, we are willing to help! Please contact us with any questions.
As a reminder, the Early Childhood Connector is a cross-agency resource available to anyone interested in asking questions or learning more about state information and resources for child care and early childhood education. A newsletter is sent quarterly to subscribers and early educators can submit questions to the state to be answered during Early Childhood Connector Calls.
Calls happen quarterly and are hosted online on WebEx. If you can’t attend the call, it is recorded, and questions and answers are available in document format too. Spanish, Hmong and Somali translations are available. Questions are due two weeks before the call. Subscribe to the newsletter and learn more on the Early Childhood Connector website.
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Next call date: Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, 7-8 p.m.
Meeting link: https://minnesota.webex.com/minnesota/j.php?MTID=m8bec87608d692be6d4924585b35ec607
DCYF Office of Inspector General, Licensing Division 651-539-8300
Office of Inspector General, Background Study Division 651-431-6620
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