5.5 Monitoring and Enforcement of Licensing and Health and Safety Requirements

5.5.1 Inspections for licensed CCDF providers Licensing inspectors must perform at least one annual, unannounced inspection of each licensed CCDF provider for compliance with all child care licensing standards, including an inspection for compliance with health and safety and fire standards. Lead Agencies must conduct at least one pre-licensure inspection for compliance with health, safety, and fire standards of each child care provider and facility in the State/Territory. a. Licensed CCDF center-based providers i. Does your pre-licensure inspection for licensed center-based providers assess compliance with health standards, safety standards, and fire standards? [x] Yes. [ ] No. If no, describe: ii. Identify the frequency of annual unannounced inspections for licensed center- based providers addressing compliance with health, safety, and fire standards: [x] Annually. [ ] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: [ ] Other. If other, describe: iii. Does the Lead Agency implement a differential monitoring approach when monitoring licensed center-based providers? [ ] Yes. If yes, describe how the differential monitoring approach is representative of the full complement of health and safety requirements. [x] No. If no, describe: Unannounced full compliance monitoring visit conducted annually for all licensed center-based providers. This is not differentiated. Delaware received a preliminary notice of non-compliance standards for volunteer training and practice drills for all 3 provider types (12/13/21). It is meeting this requirements for large and family child care and center-based providers through regulations listed below. Youth Camp regulations are explained below and therefore we unchecked the boxes for volunteer training and practice drills. FCCH: 13. General Requirements I. A licensee shall ensure an adult volunteer who is present for at least five days or 40 hours per year completes OCCL’s approved Health and Safety Training for Child Care Professionals (certificate required). Emergency Preparedness is covered in the required Health and Safety training. Center: 32. Orientation C. A licensee shall ensure all staff members, all substitutes, and volunteers working at least five days or 40 hours a year complete OCCL's approved Health and Safety Training for Child Care Professionals before working with children. This training provides professional development training hours and includes the following topics: Emergency Preparedness is covered in the required Health and Safety training. Youth Camp: Delaware will address its non-compliance for practice drills by updating the Youth Camp regulations with this requirement. Regulations revisions are currently in process with the aim to be at the public comment stage in winter 2025. The timeline for finalized regulations will be after the public comment period, at an estimated summer 2025. iv. Identify which department or agency is responsible for completing the inspections for licensed center-based providers. Office of Child Care Licensing b. Licensed CCDF family child care providers i. Does your pre-licensure inspection for licensed family child care homes assess compliance with health standards, safety standards, and fire standards? [x] Yes. [ ] No. If no, describe: ii. Identify the frequency of annual unannounced inspections for licensed family child care homes addressing compliance with health, safety, and fire standards: [x] Annually. [ ] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: [ ] Other. If other, describe: iii. Does the Lead Agency implement a differential monitoring approach when monitoring licensed family child care providers? [ ] Yes. If yes, describe how the differential monitoring approach is representative of the full complement of health and safety requirements. [x] No. If no, describe: Unannounced full compliance monitoring visit conducted annually for all licensed center-based providers. This is not differentiated. Delaware received a preliminary notice of non-compliance standards for volunteer training and practice drills for all 3 provider types (12/13/21). It is meeting this requirements for large and family child care and center-based providers through regulations listed below. Youth Camp regulations are explained below and therefore we unchecked the boxes for volunteer training and practice drills. FCCH: 13. General Requirements I. A licensee shall ensure an adult volunteer who is present for at least five days or 40 hours per year completes OCCL’s approved Health and Safety Training for Child Care Professionals (certificate required). Emergency Preparedness is covered in the required Health and Safety training. Center: 32. Orientation C. A licensee shall ensure all staff members, all substitutes, and volunteers working at least five days or 40 hours a year complete OCCL's approved Health and Safety Training for Child Care Professionals before working with children. This training provides professional development training hours and includes the following topics: Emergency Preparedness is covered in the required Health and Safety training. Youth Camp: Delaware will address its non-compliance for practice drills by updating the Youth Camp regulations with this requirement. Regulations revisions are currently in process with the aim to be at the public comment stage in winter 2025. The timeline for finalized regulations will be after the public comment period, at an estimated summer 2025. iv. Identify which department or agency is responsible for completing the inspections for licensed family child care providers. Office of Child Care Licensing c. Licensed in-home CCDF child care providers i. Does your Lead Agency license CCDF in-home child care (care in the child’s own home) providers? [x] No. [ ] Yes. If yes, does your pre-licensure inspection for licensed in-home providers assess compliance with health, safety, and fire standards? [ ] Yes. [ ] No. If no, describe: ii. Identify the frequency of annual unannounced inspections for licensed in-home child care providers for compliance with health, safety, and fire standards completed: [ ] Annually. [ ] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: [x] Other. If other, describe: Not Applicable to the Office of Child Care Licensing. iii. Does the Lead Agency implement a differential monitoring approach when monitoring licensed in-home child care providers? [ ] Yes. If yes, describe how the differential monitoring approach is representative of the full complement of health and safety requirements. [x] No. iv. Identify which department or agency is responsible for completing the inspections for licensed in-home providers. Not applicable. 5.5.2 Inspections for license-exempt providers Licensing inspectors must perform at least one annual monitoring visit of each license-exempt CCDF provider for compliance with health, safety, and fire standards. Inspections for relative providers will be addressed in subsection 5.8. Describe the policies and practices for the annual monitoring of: a. License-exempt CCDF center-based child care providers i. Identify the frequency of inspections for compliance with health, safety, and fire standards for license-exempt center-based providers: [ ] Annually. [ ] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: [x] Other. If other, describe: Not Applicable to the Office of Child Care Licensing. ii. Does the Lead Agency implement a differential monitoring approach when monitoring license-exempt center-based providers? [ ] Yes. If yes, describe how the differential monitoring approach is representative of the full complement of health and safety requirements. [x] No. iii. Identify which department or agency is responsible for completing the inspections for license-exempt center-based CCDF providers. Not Applicable to the Office of Child Care Licensing. b. License-exempt CCDF family child care providers i. Identify the frequency of the inspections of license-exempt family child care providers to determine compliance with health, safety, and fire standards: [ ] Annually. [ ] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: [x] Other. If other, describe: Not Applicable to the Office of Child Care Licensing. ii. Does the Lead Agency implement a differential monitoring approach when monitoring license-exempt family child care providers? [ ] Yes. If yes, describe how the differential monitoring approach is representative of the full complement of health and safety requirements. [x] No. iii. Identify which department or agency is responsible for completing the inspections for license-exempt family child care providers. Not Applicable to the Office of Child Care Licensing. 5.5.3 Inspections for CCDF license-exempt in-home child care providers Lead Agencies may develop alternate monitoring requirements for care provided in the child’s home that are appropriate to the setting. This flexibility cannot be used to bypass the monitoring requirement altogether. a. Describe the requirements for the annual monitoring of CCDF license-exempt in-home child care (care in the child’s own home) providers, including if monitoring is announced or unannounced, occurs more frequently than once per year, and if differential monitoring procedures are used. Not Applicable b. List the entity(ies) in your State/Territory responsible for conducting inspections of license-exempt CCDF in-home child care (care in the child’s own home) providers: Not Applicable 5.5.4 Posting monitoring and inspection reports Lead Agencies must post monitoring and inspection reports on their consumer education website for each licensed and CCDF child care provider, except in cases where the provider is related to all the children in their care. These reports must include the results of required annual monitoring visits and visits due to major substantiated complaints about a provider’s failure to comply with health and safety requirements and child care policies. A full report covers everything in the monitoring visit, including areas of compliance and non-compliance. If the Lead Agency does not produce any reports that include areas of compliance, the website must include information about all areas covered by a monitoring visit. The reports must be in plain language or provide a plain language summary Lead Agency and be timely to ensure that the results of the reports are available and easily understood by parents when they are deciding on a child care provider. Lead Agencies must post at least 3 years of monitoring and inspection reports. a. Does the Lead Agency post: i. [ ] Pre-licensing inspection reports for licensed programs. ii. [ ] Full monitoring and inspection reports that include areas of compliance and non-compliance for all non-relative providers eligible to provide CCDF services. iii. [x] Monitoring and inspection reports that include areas of non-compliance only, with information about all areas covered by a monitoring visit posted separately on the website (e.g., a blank checklist used by monitors) for all non-relative providers eligible to provide CCDF services. If checked, provide a direct URL/website link to the website where a blank checklist is posted: OCCL posts all non-compliances from all visits conducted at licensed large and family child care and center-based programs and all non-compliance determined during a complaint investigation. https://education.delaware.gov/families/birth-age- 5/child_care_search/ Delaware had a preliminary notice of non compliance on this on (1/10/2023). Delaware will address its non-compliance for the Youth Camps by updating to data for the child care search so that it includes Youth Camps. Date base changes must be requested, approved, and implemented by June 2025. iv. [ ] Other. Describe: b. Check if the monitoring and inspection reports and any related plain language summaries include: i. [x] Date of inspection. ii. [x] Health and safety violations, including those violations that resulted in fatalities or serious injuries occurring at the provider. Describe how these health and safety violations are prominently displayed: All non-compliances for large and family child care and center-based providers are posted on the OCCL website's licensed facility search: https://education.delaware.gov/families/birth-age- 5/child_care_search/. Delaware had a preliminary notice of non compliance on this on (1/10/2023). Delaware will address its non-compliance for the Youth Camps by updating to data for the child care search so that it includes Youth Camps. Date base changes must be requested, approved, and implemented by June 2025. iii. [x] Corrective action plans taken by the Lead Agency and/or child care provider. Describe: List of all non-compliance and the corrective action is given to the provider at the end of every on-site visit and posted on the OCCL website. iv. [x] A minimum of 3 years of results, where available. v. If any of the components above are not selected, please explain: c. Lead Agencies must post monitoring and inspection reports and/or any related summaries in a timely manner. i. Provide the direct URL/website link to where the reports are posted: https://education.delaware.gov/families/birth-age-5/child_care_search/ ii. Identify the Lead Agency’s established timeline for posting monitoring reports and describe how it is timely: The OCCL licensing specialist enters all data from the visit within five business days from the date of the visit. d. Does the Lead Agency certify that the monitoring and inspection reports or the summaries are in plain language that is understandable to parents and other consumers? [x] Yes. [ ] No. If no, describe: e. Does the Lead Agency certify that there is a process for correcting inaccuracies in the monitoring and inspection reports? [x] Yes. [ ] No. If no, describe: f. Does the Lead Agency maintain monitoring and inspection reports on the consumer education website? [x] Yes. [ ] No. If no, describe: 5.5.5 Qualifications and training of licensing inspectors Lead Agencies must ensure that individuals who are hired as licensing inspectors (or qualified monitors designated by the Lead Agency) are qualified to inspect child care providers and facilities and have received health and safety training appropriate to the provider setting and age of the children served. Describe how the Lead Agency ensures that licensing inspectors (or qualified monitors designated by the Lead Agency) are qualified and have received training on health and safety requirements that are appropriate to the age of the children in care and the type of provider setting. All licensing specialists must meet the required qualifications to be hired in Delaware. Job description is copied below. Licensing Specialists receive trainings for 2-3 months before being able to have their own individual caseload of programs to monitor. Job Summary The Child Care Licensing Specialist position is responsible for conducting on-site regional child care monitoring visits at licensed family child care homes, large family child care homes, early care and education and school-age centers, youth camps accepting Purchase of Care subsidies, Residential Child Care Facilities and Day Treatment Programs, and Child Placing Agencies to verify regulation compliance, provide technical assistance, and lead training sessions. The child care licensing specialist is also responsible for investigating allegations of unlicensed child care and conducts complaint investigations when regulation non-compliance in licensed facilities is alleged. Job Responsibilities and Duties The below listed tasks and functions are representative of those performed by our support staff. This is a representative listing only and not all-inclusive. Regulatory Knowledge • Maintains a proficient working knowledge of the applicable statutes, rules, regulations, policies, procedures, and community resources which provide the framework for the child care regulation process. • Understands, retains, applies, and communicates regulation requirements in multiple sets of DELACARE Regulations. • Assists in the development of child care regulations and implementation of training and technical assistance materials. Licensing Monitoring Visits • Manages the progressive discipline and administrative action processes of licensed child care facilities, which includes providing timely administrative complaint notifications to providers, keeping the information system current throughout the administrative action process, and completing each action accurately and in a timely manner. o Utilizes effective conflict management skills including strong communication, active listening, and situational de-escalation to resolve conflict in an effective manner. • Conducts on-site unannounced annual monitoring visits and off-site administrative reviews of licensed child care facilities to determine compliance with applicable DELACARE Regulations, developing corrective action plans, confirming correction of non-compliances cited, and recommending enforcement actions, including license suspension, when warranted. • Conducts unannounced follow up visits when needed to ensure compliance and effective implementation of corrective actions, enforcement visits, and Agreements of Understanding compliance visits to determine regulation compliance and provide technical assistance as needed. • Conducts on-site pre-licensing visits for applicants to ensure regulation compliance in the prospective child care location and continues increased monitoring during the first year of licensure to ensure regulation compliance and provide technical assistance. • Adapt/interpret regulations to accommodate the new needs and realities of public and private school education. • Analyze influx of new waivers/variance requests to accommodate individual public and private school programs to make recommendations of approval to leadership team. • Utilize web-based monitoring tools to input all state and federally required program information into online database. • Conducts unannounced complaint investigations, interviews appropriate witnesses, and obtains needed documentation to analyze the information to determine the validity of the complaint. • Completes written case reviews for licensed child care providers when an enforcement action may be needed and reviews all documentation with the supervisor. When affirmed, elevates to the Director, resulting in a collaborative decision to place a facility on enforcement action or draft an Agreement of Understanding (AOU). • Investigates reports of regulation noncompliance and allegations of unlicensed child care, prepares a written report of findings, and elevates the information regarding unlicensed care to the appropriate legal entity when warranted. • Prepares written reports of findings and enters data from all visits into online database to be tracked for federal Child Care Development Block Grant compliance, including all reports on program full compliance, attempted, follow-up, AOU, enforcement, complaint investigations and reports, and notes for tracking and documentation. Licensing Application and Technical Assistance • Provides intake coverage and technical assistance, responding to questions and inquiries from applicants, licensees, providers, and the public by email, phone, or additional visits. • Supports applicants with the initial licensing process, analyzing paperwork submissions for accuracy and completeness and providing ongoing technical assistance. Conduct on-site pre- licensing visit(s) to ensure facility compliance prior to receiving a license. • Provides in-person or virtual trainings to guide applicants through the licensing process and to promote compliance in licensed facilities in areas of regulation non-compliance. • Supports providers with the annual license renewal process, reviewing paperwork (renewal application, annual training hours, required fingerprinting, qualifications, etc.) for accuracy and completeness providing technical assistance, and conducting on-site monitoring visits to ensure regulation compliance. • Analyzes needs of licensed programs and provides targeted technical assistance to implement corrective action for identified program deficiencies and improve early childhood practices. Federal Background Check Compliance • Reviews, tracks, and maintains eligibility for all persons fingerprinted and linked to licensed child care providers. Reviews and monitors the comprehensive background check status of all staff members, adult household members, and child care substitutes. • Assists the Criminal History Unit with monitoring of fingerprinted background check needs and conducts regular follow up on outstanding out-of-state background clearances. General Duties • Serves as a trainer and mentor for new specialists and provides support to peers by assisting with facility visits as needed. • Maintains a monthly calendar that includes required monthly visits, intake schedule, virtual trainings, professional development, and required meetings. • Collaborates with internal and external colleagues and partners to promote child care licensing and best practices in early childhood education and participate in task force meetings and external committee meetings as assigned. • Perform other duties as assigned. Skills • Knowledge of best practices in early care and education and school-age child care settings. • Ability to understand DELACARE Regulations and ensure compliance with those regulations at licensed child care facilities. • Must have excellent oral and written communication skills. • Must be proficient in performing responsibilities with minimal supervision. • Must be skilled in setting priorities, working under pressure, and working in collaboration with others. • Must be able to proactively solve problems with professionalism. • Must possess excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to deal with staff in a tactful, congenial, and personal manner. • Must be experienced in exercising discretion and confidentiality in all professional duties. Qualifications Education: • Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited college or university preferably with a concentration in Early Childhood Education, Early Childhood Development, Elementary Education, or related field required. Experience: • Must have a valid driving license. • Experience providing child care at a licensed facility. • Experience at a licensed Delaware child care facility preferred, but not required. • Experience facilitating best practices in early care and education and school-age programs. • Experience interpreting laws, rules, regulations, standards, policies, and procedures. • Experience delivering technical assistance to diverse early childhood programs and practitioners. Working conditions (include Physical Demands) The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions • The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate. • Use of office equipment such as copiers, printers, computers and peripherals are required. • Frequently required to reason, use logic, and strategy when performing tasks. • Must be able to remain in a stationary position for 50% of the time. • Be able to occasionally move about inside the office to access office resources. • Frequently required to stand. • Frequently required to lift up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift up to 25 pounds. • Frequently use vision/ color discernment while performing tasks. • Frequently use hand and finger coordination while performing tasks. • Travel approximately 90% of the time. All newly hired licensing specialists are required to complete the 7-hour Health and Safety, Administration of Medication, and Child Abuse and Neglect trainings within three months of their start date and prior to being cleared for their caseload. The Health & Safety training that all providers and staff members are required to complete has been designed by OCCL to meet all federal requirements, apply to all age groups, and all child care settings licensed by OCCL. Delaware had a preliminary notice of non compliance on this on (1/10/2023). DE requires providers and staff members to complete the OCCL Health and Safety training to be completed before the license is issued for FCCH/LFCCH providers and during orientation for center and youth camps. The training includes the topics listed below. We will provide our training scripts as evidence, although they do not fit within the plan submission structure. • Emergency preparedness and response planning, disaster and evacuation plans and procedures • Safe sleep practices, including prevention of sudden infant death syndrome; • Prevention of shaken baby syndrome, abusive head trauma, and child maltreatment; • Routine and emergency health care including health exclusions, prevention, and recognition of the symptoms of childhood illnesses, including reportable communicable diseases and immunizations; • Prevention of and response to emergencies due to food and allergic reactions; • Building and physical premises safety; • Handling and storage of hazardous materials and proper disposal of biocontaminants; • Safety measures in transporting children, and • Administration of medication. Delaware monitors trainings required for the FCCH/LFCCH providers prior to issuing the child care license. A license is issued only when this training is completed. This documentation must be submitted with the initial application and is continued to be monitored for any changes with substitutes when the change is requested. Delaware monitors the administrator and staff members qualifications prior to issuing the child care license. A license is issued only when this training is completed. OCCL also monitors new staff members at each annual full compliance visit by reviewing all staff qualifications and required training hours. While Camp Regulations require Orientation training (Reg. #24) to include many topics including but not limited to training on OCCL regulations, positive behavior management, emergency preparedness, and building and physical premises safety, Delaware will specifically add orientation training topics to correct this deficit. The completion of this training is confirmed at the onsite visit. Delaware will address its non-compliance for the Youth Camps by updating the Youth Camp regulations with this requirement. 5.5.6 Ratio of licensing inspectors Lead Agencies must ensure the ratio of licensing inspectors to child care providers and facilities in the State/Territory are maintained at a level sufficient to enable the Lead Agency to conduct effective inspections of child care providers and facilities on a timely basis in accordance with federal, State, and local laws. Provide the ratio of licensing inspectors to child care providers (i.e., number of inspectors per number of child care providers) and facilities in the State/Territory and include how the ratio is sufficient to conduct effective inspections on a timely basis. Based on the current ~950 licensed child care providers, the fully staff OCCL the ratio would be 1:55. The caseloads are distributed so that each licensing specialist has similar number of visits each month.