Missouri is revising its childcare licensing regulations and is holding statewide listening sessions to get ideas from the public.

Kelli Jones, deputy commissioner at the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, told Show Me Today that she hopes to get feedback on possible regulations from childcare providers, families, advocates, and others.

“We’re taking a diligent look and really being conscientious on trying to get those (regulations) reduced and also just making it much more reader friendly. It’s just a great opportunity to really put some work into it and just provide a document and some guidance for our childcare providers that’s really just easy to understand and easy to implement,” said Jones.

Jones said the rules have not been updated in more than a decade.

“Some there that talk about the flooring, they talk about landlines and facilities. And now, very few people actually have landlines, so a lot of things like that that I think we can really take a look at and reduce quite a bit of them right off the front. And we always have to be mindful that there are federal regulations that we can’t change, and there are also some state ones that we have to be very careful with,” she said.

The next listening session will be Thursday, April 3, in Kansas City.

“These childcare providers, they’re the boots on the ground, and they know what is working what is not. And you know, I think it’s very important, though, for me to say that we never want to do anything that is going to jeopardize the safety and health of the well-being of our children,” said Jones.

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