The Florida Senate

402.3131  Large family child care homes.--

(1)  Large family child care homes shall be licensed under this section.

(a)  The department or local licensing agency may impose an administrative fine, not to exceed $1,000, for failure to comply with licensure requirements.

(b)  A licensed family day care home must first have operated for a minimum of 2 consecutive years, with an operator who has had a child development associate credential or its equivalent for 1 year, before seeking licensure as a large family child care home.

(c)  The department may provide technical assistance to counties and family day care home providers to enable the counties and providers to achieve compliance with minimum standards for large family child care homes.

(2)  Child care personnel in large family child care homes shall be subject to the applicable screening provisions contained in ss. 402.305(2) and 402.3055 For purposes of screening child care personnel in large family child care homes, the term "child care personnel" includes any member of a large family child care home operator's family 12 years of age or older, or any person 12 years of age or older residing with the operator in the large family child care home. Members of the operator's family, or persons residing with the operator, who are between the ages of 12 years and 18 years, inclusive, shall not be required to be fingerprinted, but shall be screened for delinquency records.

(3)  Operators of large family child care homes must successfully complete an approved 40-clock-hour introductory course in group child care, as evidenced by passage of a competency examination. Successful completion of the 40-clock-hour introductory course shall articulate into community college credit in early childhood education, pursuant to ss. 1007.24 and 1007.25

(4)  In order to further develop their child care skills and, if appropriate, their administrative skills, operators of large family child care homes who have completed the required introductory course shall be required to complete an additional 1 continuing education unit of approved training or 10 clock hours of equivalent training, as determined by the department, annually.

(5)  Operators of large family child care homes shall be required to complete 0.5 continuing education unit of approved training or 5 clock hours of equivalent training, as determined by the department, in early literacy and language development of children from birth to 5 years of age one time. The year that this training is completed, it shall fulfill the 0.5 continuing education unit or 5 clock hours of the annual training required in subsection (4).

(6)  The department shall prepare a brochure on large family child care homes for distribution to the general public.

(7)  The department shall, by rule, establish minimum standards for large family child care homes. The standards shall include, at a minimum, requirements for staffing, maintenance of immunization records, minimum health standards, minimum safety standards, minimum square footage, and enforcement of standards.

(8)  Prior to being licensed by the department, large family child care homes must be approved by the state or local fire marshal in accordance with standards established for child care facilities.

History.--s. 15, ch. 99-304; s. 1, ch. 2002-300; s. 41, ch. 2003-1; s. 4, ch. 2003-131.