In Brief: Tennessee’s child care shortage isn’t just a funding problem — it’s also a red tape problem. Over the past several years, TQEE and partners have worked to name the regulatory barriers that make it harder to open, expand, and operate child care in our state, and to pass targeted legislation that removes unnecessary friction while keeping children safe.
TQEE presented this work at the Opportunities Exchange 2026 Shared Services Technical Conference in May 2026, under the theme Reframe. Reimagine. Retool. because that’s exactly what this work requires.
We shared with advocates from across the nation that one of the most important lessons from this effort: you don’t have to be an expert on regulations or fire code to make progress on regulatory reform. You do have to be willing to ask why, and then ask why not. You have to bring people to the table who haven’t historically worked together. And you have to press forward creatively when the answer isn’t obvious.
If we want more child care in Tennessee, we have to make it possible to build and operate it. That means being honest that the current system creates unnecessary friction, and being willing to fix it.
If you’ve ever talked to a child care provider about why they haven’t expanded, or why they almost didn’t open in the first place, you’ve probably heard a version of this story: “I didn’t expect it to be this complicated.”
One advocate seeking to understand the process put it this way: “The journey has been far from simple. The 10-step process at the time led me to navigate 90 pages of rules and regulations, 42 websites, 18 manuals, and 10 walkthroughs involving two state agencies, two local agencies and a technical assistance provider, each with its own set of rules, conflicting information, and varying interpretations. I have not identified any resource that understands or provides guidance through the entire licensure process.”
This is the system we’re asking small business owners and community caregivers to navigate, often without dedicated staff, legal counsel, or a clear roadmap.
The Narrative We Couldn’t Afford to Ignore
When TQEE first began raising these concerns in the legislature, we kept hearing a troubling response: “Didn’t the industry do this to themselves? They’re overregulated now because they pushed for these rules.”
That framing concerned us — not because the regulatory challenges aren’t real, but because if we allowed that narrative to take hold, it would lead to the wrong solutions. The most obvious “fix” from a legislative standpoint? Increase child-to-staff ratios. That might look like deregulation and a solution for cost reduction, but it would undermine the quality and safety that families depend on, and it wouldn’t solve the real bottlenecks at all.
We needed to define the problem ourselves, before someone else defined it for us.
Research from Opportunities Exchange helped validate what we were hearing from providers on the ground in Tennessee. As their issue brief on licensing regulations puts it plainly: many child care licensing rules were written so long ago they no longer accomplish their original goals. The answer isn’t wholesale deregulation. It’s right-sizing the rules to reflect how child care actually operates today.
Step One: Commission the Study
TQEE and partners determined that an official non-partisan study by a state government research organization would help ground any future legislation and rule changes in understanding of the issues and potential solutions. We worked to pass and fund a study through the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR):
- Regulatory Barriers Study (SB2374/HB2317 – Watson/Williams): Identify laws and rules creating cost, delays, or unnecessary burden for child care providers but which are not necessary for the health, safety, and welfare of children.
The TACIR report gave us a nonpartisan, state-commissioned accounting of the problem and some recommendations. It helped policymakers better understand the issues, pointed toward potential legislative solutions, and it helped enlist agencies in problem-solving.
The Provider Voice.
The TACIR study was required by the legislation to include provider input: focus groups and surveys. And TQEE conducted our own listening sessions with providers.
Among many complaints, providers described being required to install extra sinks, circle driveways, and commercial fire doors in private home based care settings. “We were applying commercial standards to people’s living rooms,” one advocate summarized.
One provider’s story — a family child care home in Johnson City was told by local officials they must install metal fire doors and an ADA compliant bathroom — became a touchstone example of how well-intentioned rules can create real harm. That family child care business owner could not afford the required expenses and had to shut down.
This led to a report recommendations that local government should seek to align building and fire codes with state standards.
Step Two: Targeted Legislation
Armed with study data and provider stories, TQEE and partners worked with legislative champions to pass two rounds of targeted reform.
SB1379 / HB1175 (Watson/Williams) addressed some of the most immediate barriers:
- Allowed child care agencies to use underutilized school (LEA) space
- Accepted host-school fire inspections for provisional licensing of child care programs at the school, relieving the provider from waiting for a duplicative inspection
- Classified a child care family home as residential property for certain purposes, including zoning and building codes
SB 2509 / HB 2413 — the Child Care Red Tape Reduction Act (Oliver/Love) went further:
- Expedited child care permit approvals
- Eliminated redundant fire safety inspections
- Streamlined licensing rules and processes
- Maintained strong health and safety protections throughout
SB1683 / HB1965 (Haile / Farmer) established a narrow civil liability safe harbor for employers willing to offer space in their building licensed child care providers.
- Clarifies liability for the child care operations is with the provider
- Unlocks underused space to expand child care capacity quickly and responsibly
- Removes a legal barrier without shielding bad actors
- Preserves all licensing, safety, and accountability standards
The goal across all three bills was not to eliminate oversight — it was to reduce duplication, clarify expectations, and remove barriers that serve no safety purpose.
Step Three: From Enforcement to Partnership
Legislation matters. But so does local community action — and some of the most important change work happening in Tennessee has been community-level, not just at the Capitol.
Across the state, TQEE’s BrightStart TN Network partners have been doing on-the-ground relationship-building with providers, local agencies, and community leaders — surfacing problems, connecting people, and helping translate complex regulatory requirements into practical guidance. That local infrastructure made the statewide advocacy more credible and better informed.
At the same time these bills were moving, Tennessee got a new State Fire Marshal — a former legislator known to our TQEE team. That opened a door. TQEE began convening joint Q&A sessions with providers and fire marshal staff began. We started identifying the top failure points in inspections — what’s fixed in code versus what’s subject to interpretation, and where there’s flexibility to update the rules when all parties agree a change makes sense.
That work continues and has some next steps.
But meanwhile, TQEE partners from the Early Matters team at Chattanooga 2.0 produced a tangible, practical resource: the Tennessee Child Care Multi-Agency Inspection Handbook — available at chatt2.org/firemarshal. Providers across the state can download the handbook, understand what to expect from multi-agency inspections, and — critically — flag contradictions when two agencies are giving them conflicting instructions. It’s exactly the kind of tool the field has needed: plain-language, actionable, and built with providers in mind.
The mindset shift matters as much as the document: we stopped treating regulatory agencies as barriers to route around, and started treating them as partners in solving a shared problem.
Local Government Is Moving Too: Nashville Sets a New Standard
The momentum isn’t confined to state government. In March 2026, Mayor Freddie O’Connell joined Nashville Metro Council partners on two pieces of legislation aimed at making it easier to open and operate child care centers in Davidson County.
One bill signed into law in April 2026 expedites the permitting process for child care projects, moving them to the front of the queue — the same treatment Nashville already extends to affordable housing. The other, still working its way through the legislative process, would modernize where and how child care centers can operate, updating zoning regulations that had gone largely unchanged since 1997 such as reducing parking and spacing requirements and expanding residential access by allowing more child care centers to operate in residential and multi-family zones.
“Throughout my time in office, we have focused on improving quality of life for Nashvillians, and ensuring families have access to reliable, affordable childcare is a key part of their ability to flourish in Nashville,” Mayor O’Connell said in announcing the legislation.
This is exactly the kind of local-state alignment that moves the needle. When cities are streamlining permitting at the same time the state is cutting red tape in licensing, providers face a meaningfully clearer path to opening and expanding.
What’s Next
The work isn’t done.
At the state level, we’re advocating for a supported, line-by-line review of child care codes by a working group of providers themselves — to identify what can be simplified, clarified, or eliminated without compromising child safety. This isn’t a one-bill fix. It’s a system reset, and it requires sustained attention from advocates, providers, and government at every level.
