2022 Update for CDH Providers

2022 CDH Regulation Updates

November 29, 2021

Dear Child Development Home Providers,

As many of you know, with federal law changes, we enacted a number of regulations that are required. We wanted to take an opportunity and review changes that we could make to our regulations without compromising the health and safety of children in care.

I am writing today to update you on some important (and exciting) information about regulations for your programs. Effective January 1, 2022, we have a number of changes being made in hopes to make things easier for you.

Formal documentation of these changes can be found here.

1. Last legislative session, Governor Reynolds signed into law, House File 260. This gives child care homes the ability to care for 5 children plus one additional school-aged child before being required to register. Please keep in mind that to accept Child Care Assistance as an unregulated provider, you must still meet health and safety requirements.
2. If you have a PRIVATE sewage disposal system, you are no longer required to have an annual inspection. DHS compliance staff will look to assure the area appears in compliance and only if concerns are identified will a referral to needed to the local county sanitarian.
3. The Child Care Provider Physical Exam form has been simplified. This form is also no longer required for persons in the household under the age 18 years old.
   • Persons under the age of 18 will still require a physical but no other documentation will be required.
4. Training verification may be maintained in i-PoWeR. No paper files of training completion are required.
5. Permission for children to participate in activities away from the program no longer need specific information such as time of departure and arrival, destination, and name of person responsible. General approval for activities away from the program will be accepted.
6. While DHS will require a visual assessment for lead hazards in paint in homes built prior to 1978 in alignment with public health rules, you are no longer required to submit the Lead Assessment and Control form at application or renewal. DHS will conduct an inspection and advise if there are compliance concerns to be evaluated.

Registered Child Development Homes RATIOS

• We have REMOVED part-time hour limitations. This means you are no longer required to track part-time hours. All children may be served on a full-time basis.
• Please note: when caring for more than 8 children for more than 2 hours, an assistant is required.
• We have lowered the age of infant children. Currently: 4 children who are 24 months or younger may be in care and 3 of those may be 18 months. This is changed to allow 3 of those children to now be under 12 months.

Category A may care for 6 children not in school. 4 may be under 24 months. 3 may be under 12 months. You can also have 2 school-agers, allowing for 8 full-time children.

Category B may care for 8 children not in school. 4 may be under 24 months. 3 may be under 12 months. You can also have 4 school-agers, allowing for 12 full-time children.

Category C WITH a Co-Provider: You may care for 14 children not in school. You may care for 6 children who are 24 months of age or younger. This increases your infant capacity of infants by 2. If 4 children under 12 months of age are present, both providers must be present. You may care for 2 additional school-aged children, allowing 16 full-time children.

Category C WITHOUT a Co-Provider: You remain allowed to care for 8 total children. 4 may be under 24 months. 3 may be under 12 months.

We are also actively working to improve the Child Development Home Guidelines (Comm 143) to be much smaller and more user-friendly. Updates aren’t quite done yet but you will be able to find them here!

I also wanted to be sure to let you know that if you are renewing your registration any time soon, effective again on 7/1/21, you need to have full CPR certification that included your skills assessment.

As always, we thank you for your dedication and we know that things have been hard. Please do not hesitate to reach out to your DHS compliance worker or Child Care Resource and Referral consultant if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Ryan Page
Child Care Regulatory Program Manager
Division of Adult, Children & Family Services
Iowa Department of Human Services

Tags: dhs , cdh , regulations , updates

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