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Child care providers in Indiana could have less paperwork and more bandwidth to open facilities through a bill attempting to ease licensure restrictions.
House Bill 1253, authored by Rep. Dave Heine, R-Fort Wayne, would allow a single-owner child care company or nonprofit, including YMCAs and school-affiliated organizations, to open multiple locations under one license. Current law requires each location to hold its own permit, which providers told lawmakers during public testimony slows the process of opening new locations.
The House Family, Children and Human Affairs Committee unanimously passed the bill Wednesday. It will now sent back to the House floor for consideration and amendments. A second reading has not yet been scheduled.
The low availability and high price of obtaining child care have emerged as major workforce challenges, concerning business leaders and lawmakers. Of the about 326,000 children needing care in the state, Early Learning Indiana reports current child care offerings can seat just 62.3% of them. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average cost of child care in Indiana is $12,612 for an infant and $9,557 for a 4-year-old.
Vanessa Green Sinders, CEO and president of the Indiana Chamber, testified in support of the bill, saying child care is one of their members’ top issues. She referenced a 2024 chamber study that found parents often miss work or leave the workforce entirely due to child care challenges.
“We think that this is another positive step that provides flexibility and greater efficiencies to address some of these very real supply challenges,” she said.
Courtney Hott, director of legislative affairs for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, said this change would reduce the administrative burden for providers and address outdated measures.
The bill was heavily amended Wednesday, scrapping revisions to the definition of a child care home or child care center, guidance on the the number of children of a certain age in their care and the number of consecutive days that care can be provided. The FSSA did not detail the motivation behind the amendment, but Hott alluded to future legislation that could overhaul requirements across the sector.
“We can streamline this, make it more business-friendly, because it’s very complicated and very expensive for business owners right now,” she said. “We’re just trying to make it make sense to encourage people to get into child care and encourage people to create more access for our families.”
A few months of paperwork, approvals and consultations could be minimized under the bill. Two child care providers testified that the change would eliminate time spent on repetitive applications containing similar details.
Angela Martin, youth development director at the Lafayette Family YMCA in Tippecanoe County, said she runs a child care program that allows kids to get experience in a school setting.
“One of the things that we struggle with right now is we would have to get a license for every school that we would want to run these programs at,” she said. “If there was an option to do multi-sites, we would be more open to be able to have services for more children.”
Rep. Vanessa Summers, D-Indianapolis, cautioned that not every process needs to be streamlined, especially when it comes to protecting children.
“Some things need to go through A through Z to take care of our children,” she said. “You can’t go through A to F and think you’ve done what you’re supposed to do.”
Summers did not raise specific concerns with the bill and still voted in its favor.
If there is a violation at one site under a multi-site license, Hott, of FSSA, said the agency would flag an organization’s account and could close the site in question. While not all sites would be closed for a citation, she said the system would help them track similar violations and safety issues to an owner rather than their license. If recurring issues arise, the site, rather than the entire license, would be affected, according to FSSA.
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