Licensing reboot

The Department of Early Learning (DEL) licenses and monitors more than 7,600 child care providers, who care for up to 181,000 children. We want to make sure we are we are working well with providers to offer safe, healthy, nurturing care for children and families.

Some things are working very well in licensed child care, and some things can be improved. In 2010, DEL worked on a "licensing reboot," a simple but structured way for us to hear from providers and make improvements as needed. We asked child care providers to respond to five surveys on a variety of topics. You can read summaries of those responses below.

The goal of the licensing reboot:

Build upon enforcement of minimum licensing regulations so that:

  • child care licensors and providers work well together, focused on quality care for children
  • licensing is transparent, consistent and supports affordable, accessible, high-quality care for children and families.

The work from these surveys will also be incorporated into a licensing report due to the Legislature in January 2011.

June — Communication

  • How you like to hear from and communicate with DEL
  • What kind of information you want to get from DEL
  • What additional publications or tools you would like to see
  • Read summary of survey responses.

July — DEL/provider relationships

August — DEL licensing policies and procedures

September — The future of child care licensing: Where should we go?

  • Weighted Washington Administrative Code (WACs)
  • Overarching WACs for family home, center and school-age care
  • Non-expiring licenses
  • Risk-based decision-making models
  • Relationship to Seeds to Success, our quality rating and improvement system
  • Voluntary preschool certification
  • Read summary of survey responses.

October — Child care center licensing rules

Provider input is just one part of our "licensing reboot." In the coming year, we are also:

  • building better training, professional development and peer mentoring for DEL licensing staff
  • equipping our DEL licensing staff with technology and tools to support consistency and quality in the field
  • setting clear expectations and desired outcomes for DEL staff
  • ensuring more information about our licensing work is publicly available
  • planning for how to measure, achieve and sustain success in child care licensing

Links to related information:

www.accountability.wa.gov
Laws, rules and performance standards page