9.1 Parental Complaint Process

Lead Agencies must maintain a record of substantiated parental complaints against child care providers and make information regarding such complaints available to the public on request. Lead Agencies must also provide a detailed description of the hotline or similar reporting process for parents to submit complaints about child care providers; the process for substantiating complaints; the manner in which the Lead Agency maintains a record of substantiated parental complaints; and ways that the Lead Agency makes information on such parental complaints available to the public on request. Lead Agencies are not required to limit the complaint process to parents. 9.1.1 Parental complaint process a. Describe the Lead Agency’s hotline or similar reporting process through which parents can submit complaints about child care providers, including a link if it is a Web-based process: Parents who have a complaint about a child care provider may call the Office of Child Care Licensing or submit a complaint online. Parents are also able to call the lead agency’s Child Care Subsidy Program or the department's Customer Relations Office to voice concerns. The link to the Office of Child Care Licensing complaint process is as follows: https://education.delaware.gov/families/birth-age-5/occl/occl- forms/make_a_complaint_online/ b. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for families that speak languages other than English: The parental complaint process can be accessed through the state’s consumer education website MyChildDE. MyChildDE and all of its content, including directions on how to file a parental complaint can be translated by clicking a drop down menu and choosing another language (also visibly represented by the flag of that country). c. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for persons with disabilities: The parental complaint process can be accessed through the state’s consumer education website MyChildDE. MyChildDE was developed using best navigation practices such as ￿previous￿ ￿next￿ and ￿home￿ buttons as well as other tools such as indicators of where the user is now and where the user has been within the site which makes it searchable and easy to navigate. The visually impaired will be able to switch text size and there is assistive technology such as a screen reader that can be used to have the information on the page read to them. d. For complaints about providers, including CCDF providers and non-CCDF providers, does the Lead Agency have a process and timeline for screening, substantiating, and responding to complaints, including information about whether the process includes monitoring? [x] Yes. If yes, describe: Complaints regarding regulatory concerns are screened by the Office of Child Care Licensing (OCCL). Upon receiving a complaint, a licensing supervisor assigns the complaint into the following categories depending on the nature and urgency: Immediate Threat, Potential Threat, or Allegation Involving Possible Regulation Violation. Immediate threats require an investigation to begin within one business day. Potential threats require an investigation to begin within five business days. Allegations involving possible regulations require an investigation to begin within 10 business days. Once an investigation is completed, the licensing specialist must complete the complaint investigation report within 10 days and submit it for approval. Substantiated complaints and complaints where other non-compliance was observed require corrective action. Substantiated complaints involving serious non-compliance requires an unannounced follow-up visit by a licensing specialist to ensure compliance. [ ] No. e. For substantiated parental complaints, who maintains the record for CCDF and non-CCDF providers? Records of substantiated parental complaints are maintained by the Office of Child Care Licensing through FOCUS an electronic database which was created in 2017. These complaints can be found in our child care search online. f. Describe how information about substantiated parental complaints is made available to the public; this information can include the consumer education website discussed in subsection 9.2: DE posts a summary of all the substantiated complaints for each Family Child Care Home, Large Family Child Care Home, and Child Care Center on the Office of Child Care Licensing’s website. Complaint information is posted for the last 5 years. This information can also be found on the state’s consumer education website, MyChildDE.org. https://www.mychildde.org/families/child-care-options/concerns-in-child-care/.