In Governor Kehoe’s State of the State address on January 28, 2025, the Office of Childhood (OOC) was charged with rewriting child care licensing rules. Executive Order 25-15 addresses this charge from Governor Kehoe, which can be found on the Missouri Secretary of State’s website.

The Executive Order set forth several requirements that the Office of Childhood must meet:

1. Identify, evaluate, and implement regulatory reforms with stakeholder input across the state, including:
   1. Rural child care providers;
   2. Urban child care providers;
   3. Child care home providers;
   4. Child care facility-based providers;
   5. Child care staff;
   6. Child welfare advocacy organizations;
   7. Legislators; and
   8. Families with children in licensed child care within Missouri.
2. Eliminate or modify duplicative, outdated, or burdensome regulations to reduce state child care licensing requirements by at least 10%.
3. Improve the readability and accessibility of child care licensing regulations.

The drop-down options below provide information on how the Office of Childhood (OOC) plans to address the requirements set forth in Executive Order 25-15.

Timeline

OOC’s work to execute the order will be completed in phases. The main goal of this work is to improve the state regulatory environment for child care facilities and homes without compromising essential safety or health standards in licensed child care settings.  

 

Task Force Group

As a part of this effort, OOC has formed a task force group comprised of child care providers, child care staff members, child welfare advocacy organizations, legislators, and parents. The task force group’s role is to provide recommendations to OOC on child care rules that need clarification, modification, or reduction. 

Click here to see a complete list of the task force group members.

 

Progress Report

Since OOC took charge to address EO 25-15, the following actions have occurred:

Dates	Phase	Actions	Results
March 4, 2025	1	Virtual Kick-off Meeting with Task Force Welcome Executive Order 25-15 Overview Plan & Timeline Discussion	PowerPoint Slides (PDF) Follow-Up Notes (PDF)
March 20, 2025	1	Virtual Meeting with Task Force Review plan for Listening Sessions Discussion	PowerPoint Slides (PDF) Follow-Up Notes (PDF)
March-April 2025	1	Listening Sessions OOC staff hosted 14 listening sessions across the state to gather feedback from stakeholders related to child care licensing rules, with 12 sessions held in-person and two sessions held virtually. There were 461 total attendees across all sessions.	Listening Session Results Report
May 13, 2025	1	Virtual Meeting with Task Force Review results from Listening Sessions discuss upcoming Survey Discussion	PowerPoint Slides (PDF) Follow-Up Notes (PDF)
May-June 2025	1	Survey To reach the broadest possible audience, OOC conducted a stakeholder survey. This survey was carefully designed to build directly on the themes heard during the listening sessions. Rather than start over or ask vague questions, it took what OOC already heard and invited stakeholders to help shape the next phase. The survey included sections that: Presented side-by-side versions of existing and proposed rule language so stakeholders could compare and respond. Focused on frequent topics of concern, such as staff qualifications, substitute coverage, sick child policies, and ambiguous wording. Included open-ended questions for feedback on forms, documentation, and implementation challenges. Explored stakeholder responses to plain language drafts, giving OOC a way to test not just whether change is needed, but how it should look.	Rule Revision Survey Results Report
July 7, 2025	1	In-Person Meeting with Task Force Examine trends form Listening Sessions Review results from Survey Small Group Work Discussion	PowerPoint Slides (PDF) Follow-Up Notes (PDF)
September 2025	2	Plan and Report OOC submitted a detailed report to the Governor's Office, outlining findings and proposed actions to the executive order.	Executive Order 25-15 Implementation Report

Link to Licensing Rules

The regulations under review for this Executive Order are:

• Licensing Rules for Family Child Care Homes
• Licensing Rules for Group Child Care Homes and Child Care Centers

Resources

The following resources may assist in determining how to identify rules for clarification, modification, or reduction: 

• Code of Federal Regulations (45 CFR Part 98): The regulations found on this website are required by federal law, so the licensing rules in Missouri that align with these regulations cannot be removed; however, the Missouri rules that align with the federal regulations may be clarified for easier readability.
• Licensing Alignment Study: This study may help with recognizing how Missouri’s current licensing rules align with best practices nationwide, in addition to how Missouri’s licensing rules stack up to its border states.
• Weighted Risk Survey Results: A survey was conducted during Summer 2024 to assign weights to all child care licensing rules for Family Child Care Homes, Group Child Care Homes, and Child Care Centers. The results of this survey may assist in determining how important stakeholders believe the rule is in relation to the risk to children in care should the rule be violated, whereas a 10 equals certain risk to children while a 1 equals no risk to children. 

Please email childhoodrules@dese.mo.gov and include Executive Order 25-15 in the subject line with any questions or feedback about this work.