North Carolina HB 877: Childcare Pilot.

Bill Text

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2025
H 1
HOUSE BILL 877

Short Title: Childcare Pilot. (Public)
Sponsors: Representatives Arp, Lambeth, Paré, and Rhyne (Primary Sponsors).
For a complete list of sponsors, refer to the North Carolina General Assembly web site.
Referred to: Appropriations, if favorable, Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House
April 10, 2025
*H877-v-1*
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1
AN ACT TO ESTABLISH A PILOT PROGRAM INVOLVING A PUBLIC-PRIVATE 2
PARTNERSHIP TO PROVIDE REDUCED COST CHILDCARE BY LEVERAGING 3
STATE RESOURCES TO REDUCE COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH ESTABLISHING A 4
CHILDCARE FACILITY. 5
Whereas, the General Assembly recognizes that childcare availability is essential to 6
enabling all those individuals who wish to participate in the workforce to do so; and 7
Whereas, the General Assembly also recognizes that the costs of childcare need to be 8
lowered to enable more individuals to be able to afford to leave home and either go to work or 9
return to work after having a child; and 10
Whereas, assuring quality childcare opportunities in every county within the State 11
supports the potential for employers to make economic investments in all the State's 100 counties; 12
and 13
Whereas, being able to take advantage of quality childcare facilities within their local 14
communities at a below market rate cost will enable more parents to enter or reenter the 15
workplace; and 16
Whereas, the General Assembly recognizes that one of the ways to reduce the costs 17
of childcare to consumers is by lowering the one-time capital costs of the land, site infrastructure, 18
and the building that will house the childcare operation; and 19
Whereas, the General Assembly further recognizes that another way to lower those 20
capital costs is through the repurposing of an existing publicly owned building and its site 21
infrastructure; and 22
Whereas, to promote the development of quality childcare facilities in all counties of 23
the State, the General Assembly implements the following pilot public-private (P3) project as a 24
demonstration of how publicly owned property and one-time public capital funding can be 25
leveraged to result in a quality childcare facility; Now, therefore, 26
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts: 27
SECTION 1.(a) The Legislative Services Office shall, by October 15, 2025, working 28
collaboratively with the State Construction Office and the Department of Administration, 29
develop a comprehensive process for implementing a demonstration pilot project to select a 30
third-party childcare operator as the public-private partner (P3) for the project. The process shall 31
include, at a minimum, (i) the development of a request for proposals to competitively select the 32
P3 partner to be the operator of the childcare facility, (ii) the basic methodology of scoring the 33
proposals received to select a P3 partner where that scoring criteria can be expanded to include 34
additional considerations being proposed a respondent, and (iii) a base P3 contract to be used to 35

General Assembly Of North Carolina Session 2025
Page 2 House Bill 877-First Edition
negotiate a final agreement with the selected P3 partner. The Legislative Services Office shall 1
issue the initial request for proposals no later than January 2, 2026. 2
The Legislative Services Office shall extend an invitation to participate, as a partner, 3
to a constituent institution of The University of North Carolina System that is located within the 4
same county as the demonstration project. If that constituent institution accepts, it may participate 5
by providing either a site for the facility or a portion of the funding, or some combination thereof. 6
Based upon the level of participation as mutually agreed by the consistent institution and the 7
Legislative Services Office, a commensurate share of the childcare spaces shall be made available 8
on a first priority basis for employees of that constituent institution. 9
SECTION 1.(b) The Legislative Services Office, in conjunction with the State 10
Construction Office, shall select a site from available State- or University-owned lands suitable 11
for the construction of a shell building and shall issue a request for information and a request for 12
proposal regarding the execution of a ground lease with a third party with evidence supporting 13
the ability to operate a childcare facility as described in subsection (c) of this section. The ground 14
lease shall not exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00) per month, with a preferred initial term of 15
at least 10 years. Lease renewals of at least four years may be included in the agreement, provided 16
that the performance of the lessor is satisfactory to the Legislative Services Office. The third 17
party selected by the Legislative Services Office shall submit a site plan that will be adapted and 18
developed for the site and shell building. The third party selected to operate the childcare facility 19
will be r