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 can submit a complaint by contacting the appropriate regional child care office. Complaints are accepted via telephone, website, email, or letter and may be anonymous. The contact information for the regional offices can be found on the Maryland State Department of Education website. Parents or providers that call the CCS Vendor are given the toll-free number of the Department of Human Services (1-800-917-7383) and their website (https://dhs.maryland.gov/child-protective-services/reporting-suspected- childabuse-or-neglect/) to report complaints. Also, parents and providers can get information for filing a complaint on Money4ChildCare.Com (https://earlychildhood.marylandpublicschools.org/child-care- providers/licensing/regional-licensing-offices). b. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for families that speak languages other than English: The website has a language translator feature that offers translation in 11 different languages: Amharic, Arabic, Chinese, French, Persian, Spanish, Urdu, Vietnamese, Yoruba, and English. The languages were chosen based on analytics of the most used languages in Maryland. Parents or providers can request translation services on the money4childcare.org website. c. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for persons with disabilities: The Maryland Child website has been designed to provide equal access, navigation, and an equal experience to resources for persons with diverse abilities through the simplicity of the design and development of the website. To verify (across automation and manual assurance checks), the following tools have been utilized across modern browsers such as Edge, Firefox, and Chrome and older browsers such as Internet Explorer: Screen Readers: NVDA and JAWS WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool) Accessible Name & Description Inspector (ANDI) Color Contract (ColorZilla and TGPI) Monitoring tools such as SiteImprove Our overall goal is to ensure the website is perceivable, operable, understandable, robust, and conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards for accessibility and usability. 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 are received and then screened by the applicable regional licensing office for regulatory concerns. If there is a regulatory concern, the complaint is entered into the Child Care Administration Tracking System (CCATS) immediately and assigned for investigation. Complaint investigations are initiated within 2 working days and require an on-site inspection. If a complaint is confirmed (substantiated), the provider or operator must submit a corrective action plan to the agency. The time frame for the corrections is determined by the non-compliance of the regulation and the scope of the correction needed. For example, if a provider is required to install child-proof devices, the corrections would be expected to be completed immediately or within 24-48 hours if they need to purchase hardware or materials. In the meantime, the License Specialist will document how the provider will meet the regulation until the correction is completed. The provider is required to submit proof of the corrections with photographs, and if needed, the License Specialist will conduct a follow-up to verify corrections were made. The Record of Complaint must be completed within 30 days of the initial report. Depending on the investigation findings, on-site follow-up inspections may occur as necessary to assess compliance with violations that require the corrective action plan. Monitoring inspections are not part of the complaint process. The initial complaint inspection may have subsequent follow-up visits but not monitoring visits. Note: CCATS is a database for all child care providers, including informal child care providers. [ ] No. e. For substantiated parental complaints, who maintains the record for CCDF and non-CCDF providers? All complaint records are maintained in the Child Care Administration Tracking System (CCATS). After supervisory review and approval, substantiated complaints are posted on the Check Child Care Maryland Website. 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: All complaint records are maintained in the Child Care Administration Tracking System (CCATS). After supervisory review and approval, substantiated complaints are posted on the Check Child Care Maryland Website.