MN SF3197

Revises the definition of "supervision" for licensed child care centers to allow reduced supervision in specific situations: infants sleeping in cribs (sight or hearing only), school-age children using restrooms (checks every five minutes), and preschoolers using private classroom restrooms (hearing required plus checks every five minutes).

Requires counties designated to issue family child care variances to publish their variance policies and criteria on their public website and annually distribute this information to all family child care license holders in the county, effective January 1, 2021.

Establishes a uniform application form for family child care variance requests to be developed by the Family Child Care Task Force and issued by the commissioner of human services to counties by October 1, 2020.

Maintains existing restrictions on variances that can only be issued by the commissioner, including those for disqualifications, dual licensure, and chemical use problems.

Requires the commissioner to consider staff professional development, including completion of steps on the Minnesota career lattice, when reviewing variance requests for staff qualifications.