LAW WITHOUT
GOVERNOR'S CHAPTER
SIGNATURE
323
JUNE 17, 2025 PUBLIC LAW
STATE OF MAINE
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IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD
TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-FIVE
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S.P. 682 - L.D. 1736
An Act to Increase the Supply of Child Care Services Through the Use of
Contracts
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 22 MRSA §3737, sub-§6 is enacted to read:
6. Direct contracts with child care providers. In order to increase the availability
of child care in the State and to better stabilize payment practices for providers of child
care, the office may directly contract with providers of child care to provide contracted
child care slots to those providers in accordance with this subsection.
A. As used in this subsection, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following
terms have the following meanings.
(1) "Direct contract" means a contract entered into by the office with a provider of
child care to provide contracted child care slots.
(2) "Office" means the Office of Child and Family Services established in section
5308.
B. The office shall use direct contracts to increase the availability of child care for
children under 3 years of age, children with disabilities and children in underserved
geographic areas.
C. The office may use direct contracts to increase the availability of child care for
children other than children identified in paragraph B based on priorities identified by
the office. Such priorities may include, but are not limited to, homeless children,
children who are receiving services under the child welfare system, children who need
care during nontraditional hours, children for whom English is a 2nd language and
other regional child care needs.
D. The office shall review regional needs assessment information to determine
priorities for the use of direct contracts, including, but not limited to, needs assessment
information from Head Start programs and early childhood learning and development
resource groups.
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E. To the extent permitted by federal law, the office may use funding from any public
or private source for the purposes of this subsection.
F. The office shall adopt rules to implement this subsection. Rules adopted pursuant
to this paragraph are routine technical rules as defined in Title 5, chapter 375,
subchapter 2-A.
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