Created in 2007 by the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL), The Pennsylvania Key implements the work and supports the policies developed and managed by OCDEL. Learn More. >
Created in 2007 by the Pennsylvania Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL), The Pennsylvania Key implements the work and supports the policies developed and managed by OCDEL. Learn More. >Pennsylvania’s Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) is embarking on an initiative to rewrite the child care certification regulations. This rewrite is an opportunity for the early childhood and school-age community in Pennsylvania to co-create regulations in a way that builds stakeholder confidence in the process and:
OCDEL has identified this initiative as Pennsylvania’s Impact Project through the Office of Child Care (OCC) State Capacity Building Center (SCBC). The SCBC Impact Project is a part of the continuum of technical assistance and capacity building offered by OCC. The SCBC Impact Project is designed to assist States and Territories with long-term individualized technical assistance (TA) as they develop and expand their systemic capacity in planning and implementing their own early childhood priorities, based on the State or Territory particular context, and vision and goals for the development of a strong early childhood system. The goal of the SCBC Impact Project is to support state early childhood systems leaders in successfully strengthening systems building for effective high-impact services that can improve outcomes for children and families.
The proposed Certification Regulations for Chapters 3310 (Family Child Care Homes) and 3320 (Child Care Centers) have been submitted to the Formal Regulatory Review Process. There will be a formal, 30-day Public Comment period while the package is being reviewed by Legislative Committees and the Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC). More information about how to access the formal public comment period will be forthcoming.
The next phase of the Certification Regulation Rewrite Project will be the Training and Resource Development Phase and will include developing supporting resources and identifying technical assistance and training opportunities. More information on Phase II will be forthcoming.
OCDEL staff are leading the Internal Work Groups (IWGs) for this initiative with the support from their various business partner organizations:
The IWGs are using the Guiding Questions for Reviewing the OCDEL Child Care Certification Regulation Rewrite to address both the equity and quality lens and the ease of provider burden for the child care certification rewrite.
Drafts of the subchapters of the child care regulations were sent from the IWGs to the Ad-Hoc subcommittee . The Ad-Hoc Subcommittee, is made up of current members of the Pennsylvania State Advisory Council on Early Care and Education, former Early Learning Council members and other stakeholders such as family, group and center child care providers and other subject matter experts, who have reviewed and provided input and suggestions for revisions. See the Ad Hoc Subcommittee members.
The IWGs then incorporated appropriate feedback before releasing an updated proposed draft publicly for the early childhood community to review and provide feedback on.
OCDEL Certification Regulations Rewrite Project Feedback Tool was live from August 8, 2022, until August 19, 2022. OCDEL received nearly 400 comments on proposed Chapter 3310- Family Child Care Homes and over 1,600 comments on proposed Chapter 3320- Child Care Centers.
OCDEL reviewed the feedback that was gathered through the informal public comment period and incorporated appropriate feedback before submitting the proposed draft Certification Regulations to the Formal Regulatory Process.
Thank you to all our early childhood community partners who reviewed the proposed draft regulations and submitted their feedback during this most recent round of external engagement.
There will be time for further engagement during the public comment period of the official DHS regulatory process.
More information about how to access the formal public comment period will be forthcoming on this webpage under “What’s New?”.
OCDEL launched the process for rewriting the child care certification regulations in October 2021. Draft regulations were developed using an iterative process of writing, reviewing and revisioning for each section of the certification regulations as illustrated by the graphic below. The proposed Certification Regulations have been submitted to the PA Department of Human Services (DHS) regulation process and will be available for the Formal 30-day Public Comment Period in the near future. These timelines are tentative and necessarily flexible to accommodate the engagement process and feedback we receive.
OCDEL has recommended that each of the 2 Proposed Chapters will contain 5 Subchapters, organized in the following way:
Proposed Subchapter #1: Purpose and Authority – This proposed Subchapter might include the introduction to the regulations, and outline their purpose, applicability and definitions.
Proposed Subchapter #2: Family and Community – This proposed Subchapter might include regulations related to family engagement, communication with parents, procedures for admission, parent consent and services to a child with a developmental delay, disability or special healthcare need.
Proposed Subchapter #3: Professional Development (PD), Training & Requirements – This proposed Subchapter might include regulations related to facility persons including suitability, age, qualifications, responsibilities, professional development and preservice training.
Proposed Subchapter #4: Early Childhood Education Program – This proposed Subchapter might include regulations related to staff: child ratio, physical site, equipment, fire safety, the program, elements of child and adult health, nutrition, transportation, and adult records.
Proposed Subchapter #5: Program Certification & Oversite – This proposed Subchapter might include regulations related to general requirements for applications, appeals & waivers, building codes and insurance, child abuse reporting, departmental access, emergency plans, and the handling of child records.
OCDEL has proposed to align requirements to Pennsylvania’s Early Childhood Education (ECE) Career Pathway as well as proposed the following changes in terminology to professionalize the ECE field:
While the regulations could be published as early as the fall of 2024, the effective dates for compliance with the new regulations will vary. Child care providers will be given a reasonable amount of time to comply with new regulations that are published. To assist providers in compliance with the new regulations, training, technical assistance and supporting documents will be developed and widely disseminated as we get closer to final publication of the regulations.
