About 250 residential day cares in Tulsa can now stay open without costly upgrades to their sprinkler systems.
A unanimous decision by the Tulsa City Council Wednesday night amended the city’s fire suppression requirements for home-based day cares. Now, centers that care for six to 12 children do not have to install commercial-grade sprinkler systems to meet city standards.
This change aligns Tulsa with a new state law aimed at improving child care access.
House Bill 1847 went into effect Nov. 1 and prohibits any Oklahoma municipality, agency or county from mandating fire and safety requirements stricter than the state’s residential code for family and large child care homes.
“For working families, especially in north Tulsa, access to safe, affordable child care isn’t a luxury — it’s a necessity,” said Rep. Ron Stewart, D-Tulsa, who co-authored the law. “Too many small, home-based providers who have served our neighborhoods for years, and in some cases decades, were being pushed out by costly and unnecessary requirements that had no documented correlation with child safety in childcare.”
The city says this amendment follows a three-year effort to remove barriers for the city’s child care providers.
In 2023, zoning amendments removed requirements for larger lots and 300-foot spacing for in-home day cares and raised the limit for children from seven to 12. In 2024, the city extended the deadline for child care homes to comply with the fire code by a year.
Financial pressure on Tulsa’s child care centers continues to mount this year, as state subsidy payments will be reduced in April and income eligibility for day care subsidies will sharply drop in July. Several operators told the Flyer they are facing a difficult choice between raising rates or closing their doors.
The amended sprinkler requirements will go into effect once it has Mayor Monroe Nichols’ signature.
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