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: procedures h. Handling and storage of hazardous materials and disposal of biocontaminants [x] [x] [ ] i. Appropriate Precautions in transporting children, if applicable [x] [x] [ ] j. Pediatric first aid and pediatric CPR (age- appropriate) [x] [x] [ ] k. Child abuse and neglect recognition and reporting [x] [x] [x] l. Child development including major domains of cognitive, social, emotional, physical development and approaches to learning. [x] [x] [ ] ii. Identify the frequency of annual unannounced inspections for licensed center- based providers addressing compliance with health, safety, and fire standards: [ ] Annually. [x] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: Licensed providers receive at minimum the required unannounced licensing inspection annually. In addition to those inspections, licensing staff also conduct unannounced monitoring visits and complaint investigations to monitor for health and safety compliance with rules and regulations. [ ] Other. If other, describe: iii. Does the Lead Agency implement a differential monitoring approach when monitoring licensed center-based providers? [x] Yes. If yes, describe how the differential monitoring approach is representative of the full complement of health and safety requirements. The Lead Agency uses differential monitoring in their inspections of child care learning centers. Providers receive an annual, on-site licensing study where all rules, including fire safety, are evaluated. Providers also receive on-site monitoring visits where core rules (rules the Lead Agency has identified as having the greatest impact on health and safety) are evaluated, in addition to any rules cited at the previous visit. Additional follow-up visits or complaint investigations may also be conducted during which certain identified rules are evaluated. [ ] No. If no, describe: iv. Identify which department or agency is responsible for completing the inspections for licensed center-based providers. Statewide licensing inspectors in the Child Care Services division within the Lead Agency are responsible for completing inspections. 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: [ ] Annually. [x] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: Licensed providers receive at minimum the required unannounced licensing inspection annually. In addition to those inspections, licensing staff also conduct unannounced monitoring visits and complaint investigations to monitor for health and safety compliance with rules and regulations. [ ] Other. If other, describe: iii. Does the Lead Agency implement a differential monitoring approach when monitoring licensed family child care providers? [x] Yes. If yes, describe how the differential monitoring approach is representative of the full complement of health and safety requirements. The Lead Agency uses differential monitoring in their inspections of family child care learning homes. Providers receive an annual, on-site licensing study where all rules, including fire safety, are evaluated. Providers also receive on-site monitoring visits where core rules (rules the Lead Agency has identified as having the greatest impact on health and safety) are evaluated, in addition to any rules cited at the previous visit. Additional follow-up visits or complaint investigations may also be conducted during which certain identified rules are evaluated. [ ] No. If no, describe: iv. Identify which department or agency is responsible for completing the inspections for licensed family child care providers. Statewide licensing inspectors in the Child Care Services division within the Lead Agency are responsible for completing inspections 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? [ ] No. [x] Yes. If yes, does your pre-licensure inspection for licensed in-home providers assess compliance with health, safety, and fire standards? [x] 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: [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 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. Statewide licensing inspectors in the Child Care Services division within the Lead Agency are responsible for completing inspections. In-home child care providers are considered informal providers in Georgia and are not licensed, but instead are regulated by the Lead Agency. 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: [x] Annually. [ ] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: [ ] Other. If other, describe: 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. Statewide licensing inspectors in the Child Care Services division within the Lead Agency are responsible for completing inspections. 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: N/A 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. N/A 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. N/A 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: N/A 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. [ ] 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: iv. [x] Other. Describe: The lead agency was notified of possible non-compliance with 45 CFR §98.33 (a)(4) on May 23, 2024. Currently, the lead agency is posting information on major substantiated complaints, serious injuries for all licensed providers receiving subsidy. Additionally, the lead agency is posting all corrective action plans for licensed and license-exempt providers. Currently, the lead agency is not posting information on major substantiated complaints and serious injuries for license-exempt providers receiving subsidy and informal providers receiving subsidy and not posting information on corrective action taken by the state for informal providers receiving subsidy. The lead agency certifies that additional time is required to implement policies and procedures to come into compliance with the noted rule. b. Check if the monitoring and inspection reports and any related plain language summaries include: i. [x] Date of inspection. ii. [ ] 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: iii. [ ] Corrective action plans taken by the Lead Agency and/or child care provider. Describe: iv. [x] A minimum of 3 years of results, where available. v. If any of the components above are not selected, please explain: The lead agency was notified of possible non-compliance with 45 CFR §98.33 (a)(4) on May 23, 2024. Currently, the lead agency is posting information on major substantiated complaints, serious injuries for all licensed providers receiving subsidy. Additionally, the lead agency is posting all corrective action plans for licensed and license-exempt providers. Currently, the lead agency is not posting information on major substantiated complaints and serious injuries for license-exempt providers receiving subsidy and informal providers receiving subsidy and not posting information on corrective action taken by the state for informal providers receiving subsidy. The lead agency certifies that additional time is required to implement policies and procedures to come into compliance with the noted rule. 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: http://families.decal.ga.gov/ChildCare/Search and https://caps.decal.ga.gov/en/CAPSCaregiverVisits/ ii. Identify the Lead Agency’s established timeline for posting monitoring reports and describe how it is timely: The Lead Agency requires that monitoring reports be posted to the agency's website within ten business days of the visit date or investigation completion. The posting of reports is reviewed on a bi-weekly basis to ensure that posting is timely. While new staff are being trained, their inspection reports are posted to the public website after being reviewed. 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. Licensing inspectors must possess at a minimum a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education (ECE), child development, or a related field from an accredited college/university and two years of professional experience in the ECE or related early childhood field. The Lead Agency implements a two-phased onboarding process for training each licensing inspector on the health and safety requirements appropriate to the age of the children in care and the type of provider setting. This process includes classroom training on all areas of the state’s licensing rules and regulations, on internal Child Care Services (CCS) policies and procedures, and on regulatory administration based on the principles and competencies found in the National Association for Regulatory Administration (NARA) best practices. The first phase of the onboarding process outlines the basic skills and competencies needed to become a licensing inspector provided through classroom training and scaffolded, hands on, field -based, skills training by shadowing veteran licensing staff. The second phase of the onboarding process focuses on newer licensing inspectors learning more advanced regulatory skills including assessing risk based on information given by outside reporters, conducting investigations, and amending program licenses. Additionally, during this second phase, new licensing inspectors acquire more detailed knowledge of the organization of CCS and other GA Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) programs and services. All CCS licensing inspectors must complete 24 hours of professional development each fiscal year. Ongoing professional development is offered throughout the year to all CCS staff including specific annual professional development days. Professional development for licensing inspectors includes risk assessment, case management, advance knowledge of licensing policies, and refresher on skills including licensor competencies, rule evaluation, updates to child development, updates to shaken baby preventions, best practices in safe sleep, school age programming, health and safety standards, and awareness of community characteristics for individuals and families. 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. All licensing consultants within Child Care Services (CCS) are onboarded and trained to be able to complete all aspects of the job, no matter the role or unit/region in which they are hired. Therefore, when fully staffed, child care licensing consultants have a caseload of approximately 50 providers. This average is based on the total number of consultant-level staff within the CCS division of the Lead Agency. Some of the consultant staff have been identified for specialized work duties (i.e., initial licensure processes, critical complaint investigations, and training) but they are still able to assist with completing program inspections as needed or required. This ratio allows for timely and thorough unannounced inspections of all licensed and license-exempt providers annually. In addition to those inspections, licensing staff also conduct unannounced monitoring visits and complaint investigations, as well as scheduled prelicensure visits to monitor for health and safety compliance with rules and regulations.