The city's 20 licensed residential day-care and preschool providers can add more children to their attendance roles.
The City Council amended the city ordinance last week, allowing providers to have up to 12 children as long as each child has 35 square feet of indoor and outdoor space to play in.The previous ordinance allowed providers to care for only six children.
The move aligns the city with state law that gives providers the option of caring for up to 12 children. Regulation of the businesses, for the most part, still falls under the state statute, said Blaine Gehring, city planning director.