After nine months of negotiating, the Department of Early
Learning is planning the last session for negotiating the Standards Alignment licensing
rules. Negotiators will meet on March 3 and 4 for a final review of all negotiated
revisions. The original draft rules with negotiated revisions can be read
online at https://del.wa.gov/PolicyProposalComment/Detail.aspx
and DEL is accepting comments through February 22. Comments will be delivered
to the negotiators in time to be considered for the final review.
Negotiated rulemaking is when a state agency collaborates with
stakeholders who are impacted by a rule to develop and agree to the rule
language. Teams representing family home child care providers, center child
care providers, parents of enrolled children, Head Start/ECEAP providers and
DEL licensing staff began negotiating the aligned standards in June 2017. Each
month, a small group with representatives from each team would meet to review
draft rules and negotiate revisions. Those revisions were taken to a monthly
meeting where all negotiators would discuss, refine and measure consensus.
We have a lot to celebrate as we wrap up negotiations. There
are just a handful of sections for which negotiators still have to reach consensus.
The high success rate is entirely due to the negotiators’ collaborative spirit
and hard work. Each participant was deeply committed and generously gave time
and energy – including many weekends – to the project. We are also celebrating
transparent negotiations that stakeholders were able to follow by attending a
session or watching on DEL’s YouTube channel.
During negotiations, more than 1,000 comments were submitted by the public and informed
the negotiators’ work.
Statewide, representative stakeholders have contributed
during every step of the Standards Alignment project. DEL is committed to
continuing to engage with stakeholders once the rules are adopted and
implementation begins.
After negotiations
are done, DEL expects to file with the Code Reviser proposed rules by May 2 and
solicit comments on those rules before adopting final rules at the end of
June. After the rules are adopted, there will be a year-long
implementation phase before the rules take effect in the summer of 2019.
If you have
questions about the negotiated rulemaking process please e-mail rules@del.wa.gov.
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