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: Complaints are accepted by telephone (502-564-7962) or fax (502-564- 3950) in addition to email: CHFSOIGRCCCallCenter@ky.gov. b. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for families that speak languages other than English: All of our websites can now be translated, using a drop-down feature at the top of all website pages. The top nine other language spoken is available. https://www.chfs.ky.gov/agencies/os/oig/drcc/Pages/CSRI.aspx. https://www.chfs.ky.gov/agencies/dcbs/dcc/Pages/default.aspx c. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for persons with disabilities: Kentucky’s Division of Child Care strives to ensure all pages of the website are accessible. All pages are accessible to individuals with disabilities in accordance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Persons with hearing and speech impairments can contact each agency by using the Kentucky Relay Service, a toll-free telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD). For voice to TDD, call 800-648-6057. For TDD to voice, call 800- 648-6056 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 may be submitted via phone, email, fax, or in-person to the regional DRCC Enforcement Branch. The Enforcement Branch, upon receipt of a complaint or allegation, conducts an investigation within 30 days using methodology for prioritization of investigations. The process for screening begins with the intake report information, name of center or provider, name of complainant, description of complaint situation, who the alleged perpetrator(s) are, how the child was affected, witnesses, names of staff or children involved, and what actions were taken by the provider. Once the parent complaint is documented, a surveyor will offer an unannounced visit to the child care provider to collect information on the provider’s explanation of the situation. Staff members will be interviewed for information, and the licensing body will review all needed information (ex. video footage, staff handbooks, etc.) before making a decision on whether or not the complaint is substantiated. If the complaint is substantiated, then the licensing body will work with the provider to create a corrective action plan to resolve the problem. The complaint process is the same for each type of provider. Investigations are assigned by priority and have initiation dates of 2 days for priority 1, 10 days for priority 2,and 15 days for priority 3's. Investigations are generally required to be completed within 60 time frame. [ ] No. e. For substantiated parental complaints, who maintains the record for CCDF and non-CCDF providers? DRCC Regional Enforcement Branch, upon receipt of a complaint or allegation, conducts an investigation within 30 days using methodology for prioritization of investigations. The process for screening begins with the intake report information, name of center or provider, name of complainant, description of complaint situation, who the alleged perpetrator(s) are, how was the child affected, witnesses, names of staff or children involved, and what action were taken by the provider. All investigations are maintained in a Shared Drive upon completion. All complaint investigations are processed in the same manner. Files are maintained for seven (7) years. The KICCS system (shared drive) is maintained by the Division of Regulated Child Care and is shared with the Division of Child Care. Complaints are entered by our Call Center, located in our Central Office, then assigned to the regional office. 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: Information is available to the public through the Child Care Provider Search. https://kynect.ky.gov/benefits/s/child-care-provider?origin=program- page&language=en_US. Parent complaints can be found under ￿Inspections,’ on the provider’s detail page. The investigative findings are available through an open records request.Statements of deficiencies and plans of corrections can be found in child care provider search, which includes details. Open records requests do provide records of an investigation with the exclusion of PHI and PII.