Title 17. Education

Chapter 1. General School Law

Part X-B. Early Learning Center Licensing

17:407.33      Definitions

A. As used in this Part, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly states otherwise:

(1) “Camp” means any place or facility operated by any institution, society, agency, corporation, person or persons, or any other group which serves only children five years of age or older and operates only when school is not in session during the summer months or school holidays.

(2) “Child” means a person who has not reached age eighteen or otherwise been legally emancipated.

(3) “Child day care center” means any place or facility operated by any institution, political subdivision, society, agency, corporation, person or persons, or any other group for the purpose of providing care, supervision, and guidance of seven or more children, not including those related to the caregiver, unaccompanied by parent or legal custodian, on a regular basis for at least twelve and one-half hours in a continuous seven-day week. If a child day care center provides transportation or arranges for transportation to and from the center, either directly or by contract with third parties, all hours during which a child is being transported shall be included in calculating the hours of operation. A child day care center that remains open for more than twelve and one-half hours in a continuous seven-day week, and in which no individual child remains for more than twenty-four hours in one continuous stay shall be known as a full-time child day care center. A child day care center that remains open after 9:00 p.m. shall meet the regulations established for nighttime care.

(4) “Department” means the state Department of Education.

(5) “Early learning center” means any child day care center, Early Head Start Center, Head Start Center, or stand-alone prekindergarten program not attached to a school.

(6) “Head Start and Early Head Start Programs” mean the federally-funded early childhood care and education programs that promote and teach school readiness to children ages birth to five from low-income families and provide services in the areas of education, social services for families, nutrition, family engagement, health and mental health, as well as providing the physical plant and instructional staff members for such purposes.

(7) “License type” means the type of license applied for or held, which shall include Type I, Type II, and Type III.

(8) “Related” or “relative” means a natural or adopted child or grandchild of the caregiver or a child in the legal custody of the caregiver.

Added by Acts 2014, No. 868, § 2, eff. Oct. 1, 2014. Amended by Acts 2015, No. 297, § 1.