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: [x] Annually. [ ] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: [ ] Other. If other, describe: 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. 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] [x] No. If no, describe: New Jersey DCF Office of Licensing utilizes the same monitoring and enforcement standards across the board for all licensed child care centers as it pertains N.J.A.C. 3A:52 Manual of Requirements. iv. Identify which department or agency is responsible for completing the inspections for licensed center-based providers. The DCF Office of Licensing is responsible for inspections for Licensed Child Care Centers. 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: Family child care providers are not licensed. 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: N/A Family child care providers are not licensed. 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: N/A Family child care providers are not licensed. iv. Identify which department or agency is responsible for completing the inspections for licensed family child care providers. N/A Family child care providers are not licensed. 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: N/A (Do not have licensed in-home providers.) 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. N/A (Do not have licensed in-home providers.) 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. [ ] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: [x] Other. If other, describe: Summer Youth Camps are not considered "license- exempt center-based providers." However, Summer Youth Camps are monitored annually. 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. N/A 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: [x] Annually. [ ] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: [ ] 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. CCR&Rs are the Family Child Care Sponsoring Organization (FCCSO) under the Department of Children and Families and are required to conduct an inspection to ensure that all Registered Family Child Care Providers homes are inspected and meeting all Manual of Requirements and CCDF requirements. 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. CCR&Rs are required to annually conduct an inspection to ensure that In-Home Child Care providers’ homes are inspected and approved. Providers must comply with all CCDBG health and safety standards, trainings, and comprehensive criminal background check requirements. Approved in-home child care providers receive a Certificate of Approval. Monitoring is unannounced, all In-Home child care providers are monitored annually. 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: Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies are the designee for DHS/DFD to conduct inspection for Approved-In-Home Child Care Providers. 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. [ ] 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. [x] Other. Describe: New Jersey (NJ) currently posts inspection reports for all provider types, but these reports have been deemed to fall short of the required ￿full￿ monitoring reports criteria. On May 13, 2024, ACF’s regional office provided guidance on the draft inspection reports submitted for review. Guidance informed that posting of the broad inspection reports and blank inspection reports does not meet the CCDF requirements for the following reasons: ￿ Based on the Final Rule revisions, 98.33(4)(a)(ii), Lead agencies must post full inspection reports that include (ii) Areas of compliance and non-compliance. ￿ Posting a blank inspection report is not an allowable practice under the FY2025-2027 plan. NJ is working with its vendor to ensure 1) all standards related to the required annual monitoring are included and written in plain language; 2) Full monitoring report will display all areas of compliance and noncompliance findings; 3) corrective action required; and 4) visible display of health and safety violations, including serious injuries and fatalities. NJ will continue to work closely with the regional office and share modifications of the inspection report before finalizing the three different provider inspection reports. NJ estimates needing a minimum of one year (August 2025) to fully comply with this provision due to having to conduct multiple health and safety standards cross walks and make substantial system coding changes. Over the next year, NJ plans to utilize a phase-in approach, first, releasing the center-based report, which is scheduled to go live March 2025, followed by FCC providers, and Approved Homes. 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: If there is a serious injury or fatality occurring at the licensed program, and the Provider is determined to be at fault, a violation would be cited on the inspection report. In the event of a substantiated fatality which is typically investigated as confidential by DCF- Institutional Abuse Investigation Unit (IAIU), the inspection report would reflect the fatality in a citing as a violation. Substantiated complaints are also displayed on the public portal. iii. [x] Corrective action plans taken by the Lead Agency and/or child care provider. Describe: The inspection reports contain a summary page that indicates the corrective action required as all of violations require some form of corrective action and abatement date accordingly. iv. [x] A minimum of 3 years of results, where available. v. If any of the components above are not selected, please explain: 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: DHS/DFD https://www.childcarenj.gov/Search (all applicable provider types) and DCF/OOL (licensed centers only) https://childcareexplorer.njccis.com/portal/ ii. Identify the Lead Agency’s established timeline for posting monitoring reports and describe how it is timely: Inspection reports are posted/published in real-time following completion and finalization of the inspection report. 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. Licensed Child Care Inspectors (CCQAI) go through a rigorous 6-month training period with an experienced mentor. During this training period, inspectors have training based on modules and the manual of requirements. They also shadow seasoned inspectors in the field on all types of child care centers and slowly begin doing inspections under the mentor's guidance. Inspectors are then evaluated to see if they need more training. The Office of Licensing also conducts monthly staff meetings and trainings on various topics and updated policies, including health and safety requirements. Child Care Inspectors are also required to take the DFD Health and Safety trainings. 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. The current ratio is 1:52 and inspections and monitoring are completed annually. Through the terms established in a Memorandum of Agreement, DHS/DFD provides DCF additional annual funding to help ensure a sufficient amount of full-time employee positions for monitoring centers that accept families participating in CCDF. Inspection staff are monitored by their supervisors to ensure inspections are completed on a timely basis.