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: The Division offers several ways to file a complaint about child care providers. An individual can: - Call the Division at 1-800-859.0829 (In-State only) or 919-814-6300 and ask to speak to someone in the Intake Unit; - Fax information to the Intake Unit at 919-715-1013; Email our Webmaster at webmasterdcd@dhhs.nc.gov; or - Mail information to DCDEE, 2201 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-2200. This information is provided on the Division website at: https://ncchildcare.ncdhhs.gov/Parent/File-a-Child-Care-Program-Complaint. b. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for families that speak languages other than English: DCDEE employees communicate with limited English proficiency customers using a DHHS contracted interpreter service, Telelanguage, Inc.; telelanguage.com. This service allows staff to communicate with limited English proficient individuals in a timely and customer-friendly manner in over 300 languages. c. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for persons with disabilities: Under the Home tab of the DCDEE website, the DCDEE notifies persons of the accessibility tools and assistive technology resources which are available to assist people who are Deaf, Hard of Hearing or Deaf Blind (https://ncchildcare.ncdhhs.gov/Home/Accessibility) . Other adaptive resources can be made available upon request. 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: There is a process and timeline for screening all complaints received by the intake unit regarding child care providers including CCDF and non-CCDF providers. Complaint information is sent to a Child Care Consultant or an Investigations Consultant within forty-eight hours depending on the nature of the concerns. Within two weeks from when the consultant receives the complaint, the Division makes an unannounced visit to discuss the complaint with the provider. Dependent upon the nature of the complaint, various aspects of the program will be monitored. If the consultant is unable to confirm that the incident did occur, then the report is unsubstantiated. If it is determined that the incident did occur, the complaint will be substantiated. If necessary, various actions can be taken as a result of the monitoring visit and substantiated complaint. [ ] No. e. For substantiated parental complaints, who maintains the record for CCDF and non-CCDF providers? All complaint records about child care facilities are maintained on the Division’s Regulatory database. In addition, complaint records are maintained at the Division headquarters on both unsubstantiated and substantiated complaint report investigations for as long as the facility is licensed and three years after a facility license is terminated. 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 facilities, including substantiated complaints is available to the public, specific to each child care facility on the consumer website (once enter a county, click on any facility, then click on tabs at the top) and includes information in Spanish.