House passes bill that eases zoning requirements for home-based child care programs

During Thursday’s voting session, the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted to pass an amended version of a bill aimed at easing requirements for home-based early education programs to open. 

House Bill 1195 is a two-part bill that addresses zoning issues affecting home-based care and small child care centers. The first part of the bill would allow home-based child care — family child care and family group child care — to exist in a town without the need for a local site plan, so long as it meets state child care licensing requirements. It also allows pre-existing accessory dwelling units on a home to be used for care.  

Home-based care accounts for less than 15% of New Hampshire’s licensed child care offerings, but it is easier for providers to open than a center-based program. Under licensing rules, home-based providers still need to get approval from the Child Care Licensing Unit and local health and fire officials. 

The second part of the bill would require municipalities to allow a child care center licensed for 30 children or fewer to operate on commercially zoned land, so long as it meets licensing requirements, thereby bypassing a time-consuming site plan review.

Jen Legere, director of A Place to Grow in Salem, Durham, and Brentwood, was one of the minds behind the bill, along with Democratic Rep. David Paige of Conway and the Business and Industry Association. She said the goal is to make it easier for both providers and towns: providers, so they have one less hurdle to jump through since state licensing is already strict, and towns, so they can focus on more impactful zoning issues. 

“It was a very reasonable threshold to make sure that we were below anything that would trigger concern that we would normally see in site plan review,” she said. “We’re [looking to] take unnecessary burden off of the plate of local towns.” 

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The Bulletin reported in February that the bill received pushback from the House Committee on Municipal and County Government due to a lack of understanding of the rigorous licensing process and members’ “not in my back yard” viewpoint on home-based care. 

The Business and Industry Association hopes that the bill will make it easier for businesses to invest in child care and bring more employers to the state. 

“This bill is a meaningful step forward in addressing the cost and availability of child care, which impacts families across New Hampshire and the ability of our state to attract and retain the workforce it needs to grow economically,” said Michael Shelton, president and CEO of the Business and Industry Association of New Hampshire. 

A separate amendment, proposed by Municipal Committee member Democratic Rep. Jim Maggiore of North Hampton, was voted down on the House floor Thursday. The amendment would have removed the first section that changes local regulations of home-based child care and continued to require site plan reviews for small child care centers.

While the House supported reducing zoning barriers to child care centers, it rejected a similar effort related to learning pods.

House Bill 1050 would have prohibited town and city zoning ordinances targeting education services. The bill would have effectively stopped municipalities from explicitly banning home education “learning pods,” “microschools,” and other schools in residential areas. But lawmakers in both parties raised concerns the bill was too broad and could allow schools of any size in neighborhoods, and the House sent the bill to “interim study” Thursday. 

In New Hampshire, child care and early education are regulated by the Department of Health and Human Services, meaning they would not have been subject to HB 1050.