Session Laws

Whereas, The deferred operation of this act would tend to defeat its purpose, which is to immediately regulate child care in the commonwealth, therefore it is hereby declared to be an emergency law, necessary for the immediate preservation of the public convenience.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Chapter 521 of the acts of 1990 is hereby amended by striking out section 7 and inserting in place thereof the following section:-

Section 7. A qualified employer, as used in this section, shall mean an employer who has established, in accordance with the applicable requirements of section one hundred and twenty-nine of the Federal Internal Revenue Code of 1986, or any successor section, as amended and in effect for the taxable year, either a dependent care assistance program or a cafeteria plan whose benefits include a dependent care assistance program. On or before July first, nineteen hundred and ninety-one, the commonwealth and every authority established as a body politic and corporate and constituted as a public instrumentality of the commonwealth, shall meet the requirements of a qualified employer as defined herein. On and after July first, nineteen hundred and ninety-two, no contract for goods and services of any type shall be awarded by the commonwealth or any such authority to an employer having fifty or more employees unless such employer is a qualified employer, or offers child care tuition assistance or on-site or near-site subsidized child care placements except in cases of special emergency certified by the secretary of administration and finance or his designee to involve the health or safety of the people or their property. The office for children shall by regulation specify minimum standards for child care tuition assistance and on-site or near-site subsidized child care placements as used in this section under the direction of the executive office of health and human services. The secretary of administration and finance shall prepare a plan to implement the provisions of this section. Such plan shall be transmitted to the senate and house committees on ways and means on or before April first, nineteen hundred and ninety-two.