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: An individual who wants to file a complaint against a licensed child care provider needs to call or email the regional office. Either the licensor or supervisor will create a case in EEC's licensing system. The complaint will then be assigned for an investigation. b. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for families that speak languages other than English: EEC is committed to accessibility for all individuals. If a licensor cannot speak to a person in their primary language, EEC has a contract with a language access provider who may be able to translate depending on the language. The language access provider has multiple employees that can both speak and translate for both the individual filing the complaint and the individual taking the complaint. c. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for persons with disabilities: A concerned party may contact the regional office that monitors providers via phone. If the concerned party needs accommodation to report their complaint, they may instead send an email describing the issue. The issue will then be triaged and sent to the appropriate regional office. Any follow-up conversations or requests for more details can happen over email or over the phone utilizing TTY services. This contact information for both phone and email is available online through our website. If the provider is unlicensed, there is a separate complaint form that can be completed online. Both mass.gov and our unlicensed care form are held to WCAG 2.1 standards for web accessibility. EEC is also in the process of publishing additional pages on accommodation and language access requests. 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: When a complaint is filed, the licensor, along with their supervisor and Regional Director, will review the complaint and determine whether the complaint should be escalated to the Investigations unit, remain with the licensor, or be closed as there are no regulatory violations alleged. This determination will typically occur within 48 hours. The investigation will then occur and should be completed within 30 days. However, there are times when an investigation may take longer, such as when the compliant requires law enforcement involvement or when relevant medical information is not available within that timeframe. Depending on the allegation, a monitoring visit may occur when the investigation remains with the licensor. Visits are always conducted if the investigation is escalated to the Investigation’s Unit. Once the investigation has been completed, all non-compliances will require a corrective action plan. Depending on the allegation and corrective action plan, a monitoring follow-up visit may be conducted at the program. [ ] No. e. For substantiated parental complaints, who maintains the record for CCDF and non-CCDF providers? All complaints, and subsequent investigations, are maintained in EEC's computerized licensing system (LEAD) and are directly linked to the provider. 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 about investigations can be accessed on the consumer education website. Any individual can also contact EEC for redacted copies of investigation reports.