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Office of Inspector General – Licensing Division – May 27, 2026
You are receiving this email because you are a child care provider, licensor, county supervisor, licensing employee, or you subscribed to the Child Care Regulation Modernization listserv.
The 2026 Minnesota Legislative Session adjourned on May 18, 2026. During the session, legislation containing revised licensing standards for licensed child care centers and family child care programs was passed as part of the Health and Human Services Budget Omnibus Bill, Senate File 4612. See Articles 12 and 13 for the revised child care center and family child care licensing standards, respectively. Governor Wals signed the bill containing the revised licensing standards into law on May 26, 2026. The revised licensing standards are not set to take effect until July 1, 2027.
What Happens Now
Now the work transitions from developing new standards to implementing the new statutory requirements, along with the other components of Licensing Modernization. As with all new requirements, licensing staff will develop an implementation plan that addresses communication and engagement, IT changes, training, and rollout of the components.
As implementation plans are made, the Department will share periodic updates with stakeholders. As additional information becomes available, it will be posted to the Child Care Regulation Modernization webpage.
DCYF Licensing staff understand this is a big change to prepare for and you may have questions or comments about the new licensing standards and how they will be implemented. Please submit those questions or comments to ccregmodernization.DCYF@state.mn.us. DCYF Staff will review submissions but will not be responding to individual questions or comments.
The updated licensing regulations are effective July 1, 2027. Until that time, current child care licensing requirements remain in effect.
How We Got Here
These licensing standards passing into law is the culmination of years of work from providers, licensors, parents, and other child care organizations to update Minnesota’s child care licensing, which began with the Minnesota legislature enacting the child care regulation modernization efforts into law in 2021. Thank you to all those who have dedicated time and effort over the past five years to get us to this point.
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