The Oklahoma Child Care Services (CCS) division is attempting to implement “emergency rules” rather than having a bill sent to committee. The goal is to help fix a budget deficit in the state agency, but child care center owners and families are concerned because the decrease in funding has a widespread effect.
CCS introduced a set of emergency rules to the public in September 2024 and proposed to implement on November 1, 2024. The implementation of the rules was tabled after the Licensed Childcare Association intervened.
The current set of emergency rules being pushed include some changes.
Licensed Childcare Association (LCA) board member Janell Wheat explained the issues behind emergency rules to the Black Wall Street Times.
The rules, linked here, are meant to address state budget concerns. “If you had the money, then all this [concern] goes away,” Wheat told The Black Wall Street Times.
Oklahoma’s emergency rules bypass legislative process, raising concerns
Emergency rules implemented in 2022 moved centers’ accreditation from the previous national 3-star scale to a state-regulated 5-star scale. One of the current emergency rules aims to return to the national 3-star rating system.
Wheat said there were about 250 centers at 3 stars and now there are about 1300 5-star centers. Adjusting the way centers are evaluated adds extra expenses to the centers. “It is costly to move from one level to the next,” Wheat said.
These state-mandated changes do not come with a built-in budget increase, making it expensive for the state to match funds and subsidize centers at the higher ratings.
In 2022, when the rating system changed, child care center owners made choices about staffing and programs based on those rules. Wheat said owners allocated their funds without knowing the funds from OKDHS were temporary. “They did not disclose that they were putting a permanent requirement in with short-term funding, COVID funding” Wheat said.
Wheat said, “Mostly everything else that’s in there is aimed at punitive measures to reduce” centers’ stars. Reducing a center’s star rating saves the state money. The new rules allow for fewer indicators before state regulators penalize the center.
Notably, the language changed from the current reasons a center “may” have their stars reduced to say that they “will” have them reduced.
This could seem like a good idea, Wheat explained, but there are too many unknown factors in every scenario. “You have to have due process,” Wheat said.
Child care centers and families struggle with financial fallout
Rosesharon Stripling, director and owner at Building Bright Futures Learning Academy in Oklahoma City, has been dealing with the effects of the emergency rules since September 2024.
“It is very strenuous on the parents,” she told The Black Wall Street Times. Since September, Stripling said DHS has sent notifications to some parents that their subsidy is being lessened or eliminated. “Parents can’t pay the co-payment, having to quit their jobs,” Stripling said.
Oklahoma’s Child Care Advisory Committee is meant to collaborate with the state Legislature and officials from the Department of Human Services. According to state law, the 25-member committee is meant to “assist and advise” the state’s legislators and policy makers. CCS has one seat. LCA holds another seat.
Wheat said, the rules “should have never been introduced because it hadn’t gone through Childcare Advisory yet.”
While that committee does not have veto power, the discussions influence how policy is written. Proposing rules that haven’t been to committee is a procedural violation.
In September, Wheat said the newly appointed OKDHS Director Jeffrey Cartmell seemed to support looking at the rules again. At this time, the current set of rules have still not been discussed in committee. The public comments hearing was held early in January. Now the rules change awaits intervention or the governor’s signature.
In limbo
Stripling said the new rules are not being clearly defined. The owners can not move forward in their business if they do not understand the changes being implemented.
In an attempt to continue building, Stripling posted in a Black business Facebook group about temporarily waiving the co-payments for some of her families in need. She decided to do this for the month of December.
She said that waiving the copayment has been financially challenging. She has continued this offer for some while waiting for the rules to be sorted out. Stripling’s center serves over thirty children.
