Education Brief
Proposed child care rules would move Indiana backward, advocates say
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Advocates are worried about what changes to rules for Indiana's licensed child care providers would mean for the quality of early education in the state and for the next generation of Hoosier kids and their readiness for school.
Why it matters: Indiana has a child care crisis. We don't have enough seats, and what we do have is often prohibitively expensive.
- State officials say the proposed changes would expand access, while critics argue they would risk lowering standards for children during some of the most important years of development.
Driving the news: Last week, the Indiana Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning (OECOSL) proposed a massive overhaul of rules for licensed child care providers in home- and center-based settings.
- It would change more than 90 sections of code, including those addressing education requirements for providers and caregiver-to-child ratios.
- "These reforms will increase affordable child care capacity statewide, making it easier for providers to serve families and for new businesses to enter the market," OECOSL director Adam Alson said in a statement.
The other side: Providers and early-learning advocates say some of the changes could come at the expense of quality.
- "We're going backward," said Hanan Osman, CEO of the Indiana Association for the Education of Young Children (INAEYC).
- Some of the proposed changes would lower education requirements for providers. If the changes were adopted, lead caregivers would no longer need some form of early-learning education or training, such as a credential or degree.
- Instead, they would need only a high school diploma or equivalent.
"A high school diploma does not prepare anyone to teach young children," Osman said. "Lowering the lead caregiver requirement risks undermining the program quality and the child outcomes."
- "This says you don't care about the quality," she said. "You just care about making it affordable."
The big picture: Gov. Mike Braun has said that making child care more affordable and increasing the number of providers are priorities for his administration, but he has also said quality has to be protected.
- Last month, Braun toured St. Mary's Early Childhood Center and praised the high-quality education he observed firsthand.
- "I'm out here to find out what's going on in terms of best practices," he told reporters at the time. "It needs to be early learning as opposed to just being taken care of."
What they're saying: During a webinar held by INAEYC this week with dozens of providers, many raised concerns that lowering standards would exacerbate problems the industry already faces.
- If parents had less confidence in the program's quality, enrollment would suffer, they said.
- And while workforce shortages are real, INAEYC says the state should invest in better wages and benefits and more training for early-childhood educators.
- Hiring people with no training would increase turnover, further destabilizing the workforce, it says.
Braun's office told Axios the state is aligning its child care regulations to "widely accepted national industry norms."
- "For years, Indiana's child care system has had requirements that are more burdensome than those of surrounding states," Griffin Reid, Braun's spokesperson, said. "By right-sizing these rules, Indiana is correcting long‑standing inconsistencies and better aligning with the standards used across the country."
- The Family and Social Services Administration, which oversees the OECOSL, did not respond to Axios' questions about providers' concerns.
What's next: The proposed changes are open for public comment through July 6.
- A public hearing will be held July 6 at 10am in Indiana Government Center South, Conference Room 17.