Upcoming Changes to School-Age Licensing
A recent change in Missouri law will make it easier for community-based afterschool programs to get started or expand, meaning more youth will be safe and supervised during the before and after school hours. Previously, child care licensing regulations required school-age programs that were neither located in schools, nor run by schools, to pass stringent physical space licensing regulations that are appropriate to protect infants and toddlers. The new legislation, SB 1111, recognizes that school-age youth have different abilities from early childhood youth, so they should have different regulations.
Under the new legislation school-age programs will not have to have the same level of fire and sanitation inspections as early childhood centers, but will still be required to meet the fire and sanitation expectations of other buildings in the city or county where the program is located. Additionally, school-age programs will still have to pass licensing inspections ensuring that they are meeting other non-physical licensing regulations, including staff training and education, background checks, ratio and more. This law will not impact programs serving children ages 0-5 who have not yet entered kindergarten.
SB 1111 will also exempt programs serving only middle and high school students from all child care licensing regulations.
The governor is expected to sign SB 1111 into law. If signed, it would go into effect August 28, 2024. Missouri AfterSchool Network is working on an outreach plan to communicate the new changes to potential providers of afterschool programs.
