General Assembly Passes Child Care Reform Legislation to Support Working Families

Landmark legislation to strengthen Kentucky’s child care system passed the General Assembly on Tuesday.

House Bill 6 and House Joint Resolution 50, sponsored by House Families and Children Chair Samara Heavrin, represent a comprehensive approach to expanding access to child care and supporting working families across Kentucky.

“This is a significant step forward for working families across Kentucky and for strengthening the state’s workforce,” said Ashli Watts, President and CEO of the Kentucky Chamber. “We appreciate the General Assembly’s recognition that child care is both a family and economic issue—and its action to address it. We also want to thank Representative Samara Heavrin for her longtime leadership in addressing child care issues facing our state. This progress reflects what’s possible when leaders and stakeholders are focused on solutions. The Kentucky Chamber was proud to help lead this effort alongside our partners in the Kentucky Collaborative on Child Care, whose work laid the foundation for meaningful, lasting change across the Commonwealth.”

The legislation reflects more than 18 months of work through the Kentucky Collaborative on Child Care, a partnership between the Kentucky Chamber, the Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation, and the Convergence Center for Policy Resolution, bringing together stakeholders to identify practical, consensus-driven solutions to strengthen the state’s child care system.

The legislation addresses key areas identified through the Collaborative:

• Regulations: Implement a consensus-driven, safety-focused approach to streamlining child care regulations to make it easier to open and operate child care services while still prioritizing safety and quality.
• Quality: Reform the Kentucky All STARS program to emphasize outcomes, provide more effective incentives for child care providers, and streamline compliance processes.
• Innovation: Authorize child care micro-centers to support innovations and help address major gaps in child care services like third-shift and drop-in child care.
• Affordability: Reforms the Employee Child Care Assistance Partnership to make it easier for employers and child care providers to use, helping middle-class working families afford care.
• Child Care Workforce: Codifies the state’s nationally-renowned “child care assistance for child care workers” program.
• Children with Special Needs: Strengthens child care training requirements and support systems for children with special needs.
• Child Care Governance: Expands the Child Care Advisory Council to include more perspectives and expertise and help implement new child care initiatives.
• Support for Child Care Providers: Initiates a process to modernize how the state sets payment rates for providers serving children under the Child Care Assistance Program.
• Community Engagement: Strengthens the Certified Child Care Communities Program to promote local solutions to child care challenges and reduce barriers.
• Data: Implement and continually update a child care supply-and-demand analysis and improve how the state tracks and displays key child care datapoints.
• Financial Transparency: Establishes new reporting requirements for the Office of State Budget Director to ensure that public spending on child care is clear and transparent.

The bill also includes provisions aimed at supporting child care access for children in military families, which was requested by the U.S. Department of Defense to help families at Fort Knox and Fort Campbell.  

During the legislative process, the Senate amended House Bill 6 to include two additional bills: Senate Bill 160 and Senate Bill 191, both sponsored by Senate Families and Children Chair Danny Carroll. Senate Bill 160 implements important reforms to child care licensing and inspections processes, while Senate Bill 191 establishes an innovative new pilot program focused on kindergarten readiness. The pilot will be overseen by the University of Kentucky and will run through 2029, with a final report due in January 2030.

House Bill 6 received a final vote of 36-1 in the Senate and 83-10 in the House. House Joint Resolution 50 was approved unanimously by both chambers.

The legislation now heads to the governor’s desk.