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 may call the published child care services telephone number or use the email address as found on the Lead Agency’s website at Contact Us - Child Care Services (ga.gov). An intake consultant will speak to or email the parent to determine if there are potential rule violations associated with the parent’s concerns. If there are potential violations, an intake will be entered identifying the rule violations, the program, and person(s) involved, and the complaint will be assigned for investigation b. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for families that speak languages other than English: Through a statewide contract for translation services, the state can provide translation services over the phone for French, Italian, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Hemispheric Indigenous Languages, Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Khmer (Cambodian) Thai, Laotian, Mandarin, Arabic, African Dialects, Russian, and Polish. In addition, Google translate can be used for email content translation c. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for persons with disabilities: The Lead Agency’s website is accessible on any device through a web browser. Information can be accessed through text reads and audio scanners. The Lead Agency provides multiple ways for parental complaints to be submitted to the agency for review and investigation. 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: An intake consultant will speak to or email the parent to determine if there are potential rule violations associated with the parent’s concerns. All calls and emails are responded to within 24-48 hours. If there are potential violations, an intake will be entered identifying the rule violations, the program, and person(s) involved, and it will be assigned for investigation. An investigation is conducted for all alleged potential rule and regulation violations, and initiation timeframes are based on the severity of those violations ranging from 24 hours to 30 days. A regulatory or follow- up visit is conducted alongside an investigation for rule monitoring purposes, unless Child Care Services has been at the program in the previous two weeks, then only an investigation is conducted. The assigned consultant conducts a visit at the program and gathers information concerning the alleged rule violation(s), including a review of documentation, observation and inspection of the facility and equipment, and staff and child interviews, if applicable. In addition, contacts are made with other agencies/entities who may also be involved in the investigation (i.e., Department of Family and Children Services, local/state police). Medical documentation is requested for serious incidents/injuries, and written statements are requested from parties who may also be involved. Additional on-site monitoring visits may be made, if deemed necessary. Once all evidence is gathered, the consultant determines, based on Georgia statute, if there is preponderance of evidence that a rule was violated. If a preponderance of evidence is present, then the allegation is substantiated. Any rule violation is cited on a visit report. Investigations are given a due date of 30 business days; however, if there are parallel investigations by other agencies, the Lead Agency may determine that the investigation remains open until the other agencies make their determinations. [ ] No. e. For substantiated parental complaints, who maintains the record for CCDF and non-CCDF providers? Violations of child care rules that resulted from substantiated parental or general public complaints are available on the Lead Agency's website for 60 months. Since 2004, electronic records on substantiated and unsubstantiated complaint investigations are maintained indefinitely. Paper records are maintained for three years at the Lead Agency’s office. If the substantiated complaint results in an Adverse Action, after the appeal process has passed, the Adverse Actions are published for 60 months. 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: Substantiated complaints are available to the public on the Lead Agency’s website for 60 months. Any Adverse Actions resulting from substantiated complaints are available to the public on the Lead Agency’s website for 60 months.