Child Care Licensing Resources:

Revisions to Child Care Licensing Rules

August 28, 2008

In December, 2007, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) held public hearings on proposed revisions to portions of HFS 45 Licensing Rules for Family Child Care Centers , HFS 46 Licensing Rules for Group Child Care Centers, and HFS 55 Licensing Rules for Day Camps.

Revisions were made to the proposed rules based on the comments received and the final rule making order was sent to the Legislature for review on August 27, 2008.

Please use the link below to review the revised rule making order.  Please note that the rule making order is a single document that includes changes to all three rules:  Family Child Care, Group Child Care, and Day Camp.  Only the revised rules are included in the rule making order.

  • The changes to HFS 45, Licensing Rules for Family Child Care begin on page 16.
  • The changes to HFS 46, Licensing Rules for Group Child Care begin on page 39.
  • The changes to HFS 55, Licensing Rules for Day Camps begin on page 69.

New rule language appears as 'underlined'.  Deleted rule language appears as 'strikethrough'.

The Department has responded to all comments made by a person or agency during the public comment period.  Both written and oral testimony was received.  The link below contains a summary of the persons commenting, his/her comments and the Department's response. Each person providing comment is listed numerically at the beginning of the document.  Comments in the document are attributed to a commenter by the corresponding number that follows the comment.

The rule making order is also posted on the Wisconsin Administrative Rules Website.  In addition, individuals may subscribe on this site to receive email notifications of future actions relating to this rule making order.  

Following legislative approval, the Department will update this website with information on an effective date for the revised rules.

Last Revised:  August 28, 2008