During the last legislative session, the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) brought forward a bill to simplify several child care license types in state law. Instead of moving forward with the bill, the Legislature directed that the topic be studied further.
As part of this work, a Child Care Services Advisory Committee was created. The committee has 11 members and works with HHS and the Early Childhood Services Advisory Board to review child care licensing laws, administrative rules and HHS licensing policies. The committee is chaired by Senator Kyle Davison.
In November 2025, the committee and board met together. During this meeting, the HHS Early Childhood team shared background information to support discussion. Topics included an overview of federal child care funding requirements (CCDBG and CCDF), health and safety standards, current license types, licensing processes, monitoring and inspections, and recent federal findings related to North Dakota’s child care licensing system. The group also talked about plans to gather provider input.
HHS partnered with a national Child Care Quality and Business Support Center technical assistance specialist to make sure child care providers had multiple ways to share feedback. The goal is to help make licensing rules clearer, less complicated and better aligned with provider needs—while continuing to protect children’s health and safety.
Providers were invited to share input through virtual meetings, in-person sessions and a survey. The virtual meetings had great attendance. In-person sessions and the survey are still available.
Learn more about attending an in-person meeting and complete the survey here.