House committee advances bill barring registered '*** offenders' from living near licensed child care facilities

Cheyenne — The Committee of the Whole recommended passage of Senate File 88, a bill that would bar registered "*** offenders" from living within 1,000 feet of a licensed childcare facility. Sponsors said the measure protects children; members raised concerns about housing, grandfathering and unintended consequences.

Vice Chair Singh, addressing the bill on the floor, said the measure prohibits registered *** offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a licensed childcare facility and acknowledged there "may be an amendment coming up" to address some operational questions. Representative Brown asked how the law would affect a person who lawfully bought a house on a plat that later had a child‑care facility or school built nearby; Representative Chastick noted a grandfather clause in the bill intended to protect people who lived in a location before a facility opened.

Members representing small towns warned the 1,000‑foot buffer could effectively exclude many potential housing sites. Representative Harrelson said small municipalities with in‑home licensed providers could make large swaths of town off‑limits. Representative Yin cautioned that the provision could be "weaponized," describing a hypothetical in which a neighbor could seek licensure of a day care to force a nearby registry resident from the area.

The sponsor acknowledged those policy trade‑offs and said he would be open to amendments to address distance calculations and to prevent misuse of licensure processes. The Committee of the Whole recommended passage and the report was adopted on the House floor by voice vote.

What it does: the bill, as presented, applies to all registry categories referenced in statute (the sponsor stated the bill is "all encompassing"). The transcript uses the redacted term "*** offenders" where the underlying file title and text were referenced on the floor.

Unresolved issues: whether the bill should be narrowed to specific registry categories, how to treat people who later become registrants after purchasing homes, and how to prevent license‑based displacement.

The Committee of the Whole and the House acted by voice votes; numeric tallies were not recorded in the transcript.