Half a loaf is better than no loaf when it comes to a legislator’s bills, and state Sen. Barbara Favola came away with a partial victory in patroning legislation to expand child-care facilities across the commonwealth.
Favola (D-Arlington-Fairfax-Loudoun) entered the 2022 session patroning a measure (SB 69) that effectively would have allowed any residents of an apartment unit to operate a child-care facility by right, if all other operative local, state and federal laws were met.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the bill drew concern from those who own and manage apartments, and in the Senate Committee on General Laws & Technology, the measure was amended to allow landlords to permit child-care uses in apartments if they chose, but not to mandate that they do so.
The amended version won 40-0 passage in the Senate and has moved over for consideration in the House of Delegates.