Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs  
Bureau of Community and Health Systems  
Public Hearing  
Thursday, July 18, 2019  
3:00 P.M.  
Present From Department of  
Licensing and Regulator Affair  
Ms. Tammy Bagby  
Mr. Mark Jansen  
Court Reporter: Cynthia Lathrop, CSR-2474  
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Lansing, Michigan  
Thursday, July 18, 2019  
3:00 p.m.  
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R E C O R D  
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MS. BAGBY: Good afternoon, my name is  
Tammy Bagby, and I'm an analyst for the Bureau of  
Community and Health Systems in the Department of  
Regulatory Affairs.  
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This hearing regarding the Licensing  
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Rules for Family and Group Child Care Homes is being  
called to order at 3 p.m. on July 18, 2019 at the  
Library of Michigan and Historical Museum-Forum  
Auditorium located at 702 West Kalamazoo Street in  
Lansing, Michigan. This hearing is being conducted  
under the authority of the Administrative Procedures  
Act, Public Act 306 of 1969.  
The notice of public hearing was  
published in three newspapers; on July 1st in the  
Marquette Mining Journal; and on July 2nd, it was  
published in the Jackson Citizen Patriot and the  
Grand Rapids Press. The same notice was published in  
the Michigan Register on July 15, 2019.  
As stated in the notice, the proposed  
rule revisions are being promulgated as a result of  
recent amendments to the Child Care Licensing Act and  
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new requirements of the federal Child Care and  
Development Block Grant.  
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Regulatory impact statements are  
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available for further explanation of these rule sets.  
Copies were available in the hall outside the  
auditorium. They can also be found on the Web site  
of Michigan Office of Administrative Hearings and  
Rules, formally known as ORR.  
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Pursuant to Section 45 of the  
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Administrative Procedures Act, MCL 24.245, the public  
hearing is an opportunity for the public to present  
data, views, questions and arguments regarding the  
proposed rules.  
The Department will use the testimony  
and documents presented at this hearing to determine  
if any changes should be made to the proposed rules  
before they were adopted.  
If you have comments, please make sure  
that they relate directly to the proposed rules.  
If you have questions regarding the  
rules, please submit your questions as part of your  
testimony for the Department's review.  
If you have suggested changes to the  
proposed rules, please include the specific reason  
why the changes would be in the public interest.  
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If you wish to comment, please  
complete a white card that were available when you  
came in; this will help the Department prepare the  
hearing record. When you testify, please identify  
yourself by name and any organization, if any, that  
you are representing today.  
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Written statements can be submitted  
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directly to me. The Department will also accept  
written statements, e-mail and postmarked until 5:00  
p.m. on Friday, July 19, 2019. Address information  
can be found in the notice of public hearing that we  
have made available in the hall.  
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If you would like to testify and have  
not completed a white card, let me know because I've  
got some here.  
The Department staff from the Bureau  
of Community and Health Systems include myself,  
Sharon Riebel, Child Care Program Consultant, and  
Mark Jansen, Director of Child Care Licensing  
Division.  
Before we start with public comments,  
I invite Mark Jansen to the podium.  
MR. JANSEN: Thanks, Tammy. Good  
afternoon. My name is Mark Jansen. I am the Child  
Care Licensing Director within the Bureau of  
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Community Health Systems within and the Department of  
Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.  
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Today's hearing on the proposed new  
rule set is for child care licensing in family homes  
and groups homes. The project was initiated by the  
Department about two years ago. The purpose of the  
project is to identify the core principles and the  
standards of child care licensing and then conduct a  
comprehensive review and update of all the family  
home and group home licensing rules.  
The goal is to replace the current  
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rule set with an updated rule set for child care  
licensing for homes and group homes that will  
accomplish the following seven objectives:  
Fulfill the statutory requirements for  
rulemaking.  
Enable the Department and child care  
providers in their homes to focus on a core set of  
principles and standards for child care licensing and  
regulation.  
Comport the current practice  
standards.  
Harmonize the rules with federal law  
and regulations.  
Be uniform insofar as is reasonable;  
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that is, the rules should be consistent across  
different types of child care providers, unless  
differences are necessary to fulfill statutory,  
medical or structural requirements.  
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Be free of unnecessary repetition of  
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federal and state statutory and regulatory language.  
And be free of obsolete and  
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unnecessary rules.  
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We think the proposed rule set  
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accomplishes these objectives.  
The project was designed to have input  
from internal and external stakeholders from the very  
beginning of this process.  
An ad hoc committee was formed based  
on Public Act 116 of 1973. It included five  
representatives from LARA, one from the Department of  
Education, two from the Department of Human and  
Health Services, and one from the Michigan  
Association for the Education of Young Children. And  
we really appreciated the expertise of eight  
licensees who also gave their time away from their  
business to help us revise the rules for child care,  
for the homes and for the group homes.  
The rules apply to two different  
provider types, including approximately 4,200 homes  
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or group homes providing care to children. In order  
to have input from these providers, the Department  
identified stakeholders, reviewed comments submitted  
since 2009 by interested parties and invited them to  
participate in the project by contacting the Child  
Care Licensing Division.  
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The Department held four meetings with  
providers and stakeholders.  
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The five versions of draft rules were  
circulated to stakeholders for review and comment,  
and the proposed rules reflect their input.  
We look forward to hearing your  
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comments today. We thank you very much for coming  
and participating.  
MS. BAGBY: Okay. With that, we will  
now begin the public comment time frame. If you are  
handing in written comments, feel free to just  
summarize them and add to your comments; you don't  
need to read them as they will become part of the  
official record.  
A reminder that comments must pertain  
to the proposed rules.  
The first card I have is from Steve  
Springer from the DHHS Cancer Section.  
MR. SPRINGER: Thank you. Good  
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afternoon. My name is Steve Springer. I'm with the  
Cancer Prevention and Control Section at the Michigan  
Department of Health and Human Services. I  
specifically work in the Comprehensive Cancer Control  
Unit. That's a unit that works with cancer across  
the continuum; but to put that in more plain  
language, from prevention to early detection to  
diagnosis and treatment to survivorship and quality  
of care, and in some cases end of life care is also  
part of this.  
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I'm here today to share -- simply  
share information on the hazards of radon and to  
indicate my support for strategies that work to  
eliminate or reduce radon exposure, and in this case,  
I'm talking about child care homes and child care  
center settings.  
Just a few statements about radon.  
Radon is a Class A carcinogen. It causes cancer in  
humans. So it is the same as cigarette smoke in this  
regard. It is deadly. Scientists attribute about  
20,000 deaths in the U.S. each year to radon. It's  
the second leading cause of lung cancer behind  
smoking.  
You can't see, smell or taste radon,  
so you don't know if it's there or not. The harm  
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comes when the home has high levels of radon and  
exposure takes place over a period of time.  
One out of fifteen homes have high  
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radon levels, and any home can have a radon problem,  
whether it's a home with a basement or without a  
basement, whether the home is right -- two homes  
right next to each other, one can have a radon  
problem and one may not have a radon problem.  
I think it's important to understand  
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that the State of Michigan's cancer plan for 2016 and  
2020 has radon in the section on preventing cancer.  
This is a document that is developed and implemented  
by State cancer experts from around Michigan.  
I'm here to simply support the rules  
for both child care home and child care centers as  
they relate to heating, ventilation and lighting in  
child care homes and light, ventilation and screening  
in child care centers. I support periodic retesting  
of radon and support that this is done by qualified  
and certified professionals.  
That's what I have. Thank you.  
MS. BAGBY: Thank you. Our next  
person is Andrew Schepers. Welcome.  
MR. SCHEPERS: Thank you. Good  
afternoon. I appreciate the opportunity to speak  
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today. My name is Andrew Schepers, and I am the  
Government Relations Director for the American Cancer  
Society here in Michigan.  
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I have comments based on the Rule  
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419.34, or through 4. We would like an amendment to  
item No. 4 to include language that would help  
periodic testing if levels are -- exceed that four --  
that level that's listed in there, and that the  
retesting be done within some type of time limit,  
usually periodic, a period of either five or six  
years and be done by -- be done by a certified  
professional. We are and we would be in favor of  
that change.  
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And then we're also in favor of the  
added rule, No. 5, providing the notification for  
parents. We feel it's vital in terms of making sure  
that parents know that there may have been a radon  
problem or a radon issue and something has been done  
to take care of that.  
One issue we would just -- kind of  
more of a vocabulary issue, but change remediation to  
mitigation system. It's more of a vernacular.  
But other than that, we support the  
Department's efforts in terms of trying to bring  
radon more into the public eye, especially when it  
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comes to child care home centers in that we hope that  
the Department does the same ones they looked at as  
the morbid commercial side.  
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Thank you.  
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MS. BAGBY: Thank you. I appreciate  
your comments.  
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I do not have any other cards. Would  
anybody else want to speak? Seeing none, to give  
people time in case that are running late, it is  
3:12. We will take a 20-minute recess which brings  
us back at 3:32.  
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(Recess taken.)  
MS. BAGBY: It is 3:32. We will  
reconvene. One last call out if anybody wants to  
have any comments. I guess not.  
I want to thank everybody who  
testified today, and thank you for coming.  
Each comment that we received today,  
both verbally and everything that we received by  
e-mail or statement, as well as electronically, will  
be reviewed and evaluated by the Department.  
And with that, it is 3:32, and we will  
adjourn. Thank you for coming.  
(Hearing concluded at  
3:32 p.m.)  
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STATE OF MICHIGAN  
)
) SS:  
COUNTY OF SHIAWASSEE )  
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I, Cynthia A. Lathrop, a Shorthand Reporter  
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and Notary Public in and for the above county and state,  
acting in the County of Ingham, do hereby certify that the  
aforegoing hearing was taken before me at the time and  
place hereinbefore set forth.  
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I further certify that said hearing was me  
reported by me stenographically and subsequently  
transcribed and that the aforegoing is a full, true and  
correct transcript of my original shorthand notes.  
IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I set my hand and  
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notarial seal at Shiawassee County, Michigan, this 25th day  
of July 2019.  
_______________________________  
Cynthia A. Lathrop (CSR-2474)  
Notary Public in and for the  
County of Shiawassee,  
State of Michigan  
My Commission Expires: 2/2/20  
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;