This bill makes several changes to statutes governing data privacy for child care assistance programs and modifies eligibility requirements for early learning scholarships.

Section 1. Authorizes the Department of Human Services to share welfare data about child care assistance program participants, applicants, and providers with the Department of Education.

Section 2. Makes the following child care provider licensing violations private or nonpublic:

• the violation is at least seven years old;
• the violation was not based on harm or risk of harm to a child; and
• the provider did not violate the same rule or statutory provision in the seven years following the date of the initial violation.

Section 3. Provides cross-references in chapter 13 (Minnesota Government Data Practices Act) for data classified in the sections governing the child care assistance program.

Section 4. Defines “child care assistance program data” as data for a specific time period showing that a child care assistance program payment was made and the amount of the payment to the child care center. Certain payment data is public but any data identifying a child is private.

Sections 5-6. Modifies eligibility for early learning scholarships.

Section 7. Authorizes DHS to share with MDE data on the child care assistance program disqualification for the purpose of determining early learning scholarship eligibility. MDE may share the same data with an early learning scholarship area administrator.

Section 8. Provides that inspection results must not be publicly available on the DHS website for a period longer than the minimum time imposed by federal law.

Effective dates. Sections 1, 3, and 4 are effective the day following final enactment. Sections 2 and 8 are effective August 1, 2019. Sections 5-7 are effective July 1, 2019.