S.F. No. 3473 establishes a three-year grant program for the commissioner of human services to award grants to counties or tribes that partner with family child care providers or child care centers who would use grant funding to develop, improve, or expand their child care setting to enable the provider to care for children with disabilities in the same space as children without disabilities.
Grant recipients and partner child care providers would identify onetime and ongoing expenses that would enable the partner provider to develop an inclusive child care setting by making modifications to the space, training or hiring additional staff, or funding the cost of services or equipment for the children with disabilities.
Grant recipients would report to the commissioner every six months, and at the end of the grant period, the commissioner will report to the legislature on the process and outcomes of the program, as well as how inclusive child care settings could be expanded statewide.
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