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: [ ] Annually. [x] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: Once a center is licensed, all inspections thereafter are unannounced. A licensed center will receive at least one unannounced additional compliance inspection each year. A licensed center may have additional unannounced inspections due to the frequency of complaints and critical incident reports received. [ ] Other. If other, describe: appropriate) 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] [x] 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: All licensed center-based providers receive a compliance monitoring inspection in the following areas: Supervision, Child/Staff Ratio, CPR/PFA, Hazards, Safety Requirements, Playground Observation, Nutrition, Discipline, Child Care Criminal Background Checks, and Attendance. iv. Identify which department or agency is responsible for completing the inspections for licensed center-based providers. The Lead Agency’s Division of Licensing in the Office of Early Childhood Care and Education. 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? [ ] Yes. [x] No. If no, describe: Not applicable￿Louisiana does not license family child care providers. ii. Identify the frequency of annual unannounced inspections for licensed family child care homes addressing 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 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: Not applicable iv. Identify which department or agency is responsible for completing the inspections for licensed family child care providers. Not applicable 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 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. [x] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: License-exempt CCDF center-based providers receive two inspections each year after certification, one announced and one unannounced inspection. [ ] 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. The Lead Agency’s Division of Licensing in the Office of Early Childhood Care and Education 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. [x] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: License-exempt providers receive two inspections each year after certification, one announced and one unannounced inspection. [ ] Other. If other, describe: 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. The Lead Agency’s Division of Licensing in the Office of Early Childhood Care and Education 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. License-exempt providers receive two inspections each year after certification, one announced and unannounced inspection. Additional follow-up visits may be conducted as needed. Differential monitoring is not conducted at this time. 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: The Lead Agency’s Division of Licensing in the Office of Early Childhood Care and Education 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. [x] Pre-licensing inspection reports for licensed programs. ii. [x] 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. [ ] 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: The inspection report provides the regulation that the provider was deficient in as well as the specific details regarding the violation. iii. [x] Corrective action plans taken by the Lead Agency and/or child care provider. Describe: In the statement of deficiencies, immediately following the deficient practice cited, is included the corrective action plan determined by the director, director designee, or owner to correct the issue is listed. iv. [x] A minimum of 3 years of results, where available. v. If any of the components above are not selected, please explain: Not applicable 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://louisianaschools.com/ After selecting a site, a viewer can see the monitoring report under the ￿Inspections￿ tab. ii. Identify the Lead Agency’s established timeline for posting monitoring reports and describe how it is timely: Generally the Lead Agency posts monitoring reports within the month of the monitoring visit but no later than 90 days after an inspection is made. 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. The minimum requirement for a licensing inspector is a baccalaureate degree plus two years of professional level experience in hospital, nursing home, or child care center administration; public health; social services; family life education; early childhood development regulatory experience; administrative services; or teaching at the elementary or secondary level. Licensing specialists are trained on BESE Bulletins 137 and 139 and then gain inspection experience with a seasoned specialist for approximately four months. The Program Manager and Supervisor assess the new Licensing Specialist weekly. After approximately four months, the new Licensing Specialist is given his/her own caseload. 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. As of June 24, 2024, there are 1,815 providers and 27 Licensing Specialists positions; therefore, the ratio of licensed and license- exempt providers:licensing specialist is 67:1. Caseloads and monitoring visits are monitored by the Program Manager for completeness and timeliness. This ratio allows for high-priority monitoring visits for which need arises as well as annual inspections; therefore, it is felt to be sufficient.