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 g. Emergency preparedness and response planning and procedures [x] [x] [ ] h. Handling and storage of hazardous materials and disposal of biocontaminants [x] [x] [ ] i. Appropriate Precautions in transporting children, if applicable [x] [x] [ ] j. Pediatric first aid and pediatric CPR (age- appropriate) [x] [x] [ ] k. Child abuse and neglect recognition and reporting [x] [x] [ ] l. Child development including major domains of cognitive, social, emotional, physical development and approaches to learning. [x] [x] [ ] 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: ECECD licensing inspectors perform at least two unannounced inspections per year to monitor/survey and ensure compliance with health, safety, and fire standards for licensed center-based providers. [ ] 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. [x] No. If no, describe: ECECD monitors the full complement of the health, safety, and fire standards for licensed centers. iv. Identify which department or agency is responsible for completing the inspections for licensed center-based providers. New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD). 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? [x] Yes. [ ] No. If no, describe: ii. Identify the frequency of annual unannounced inspections for licensed family child care homes addressing compliance with health, safety, and fire standards: [ ] Annually. [x] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: ECECD licensing inspectors perform at least two unannounced inspections per year to [ ] Other. If other, describe: 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: ECECD monitors the full complement of the health, safety, and fire standards for licensed homes. iv. Identify which department or agency is responsible for completing the inspections for licensed family child care providers. New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD). 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 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 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: Child care facilities operated by the federal government (military installations and tribal CCDF) are exempt from licensure by the State of New Mexico and are instead regulated and licensed by the federal Department of Defense or Tribal CCDF ECECD. Military facilities are required to maintain and submit annual copies of their Department of Defense certificate and accreditation (if applicable) in order to receive CCDF funds. For Tribal CCDF providers, these facilities are required to submit proof of tribal CCDF approval 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. Department of Defense or Tribal CCDF ECECD. 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. Department of Defense or Tribal CCDF ECECD. 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. Parents or guardians must consent to initial and annual unannounced inspections. In-home child care providers are monitored all the applicable health and safety standards. 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: New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD). 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 compliance status for each regulation is prominently displayed on the form. Violations of regulations will be noted. In plain language, the survey outlines the health and safety violation, including any fatalities or serious injuries, that were found and the corrective action plan with timeline for completion. iii. [x] Corrective action plans taken by the Lead Agency and/or child care provider. Describe: The ECECD licensing authority will conduct a survey at least twice a year in each childcare facility using these regulations as criteria and will formulate corrective action plans depending on any deficiencies found. The ECECD licensing authority will conduct additional surveys or visit the childcare facility additional times to provide technical assistance, to check progress on correction of deficiencies found on previous surveys and corrective action plans, or to investigate complaints. iv. [x] A minimum of 3 years of results, where available. v. If any of the components above are not selected, please explain: N/A 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://www.nmececd.org/child-care-services/child-care-licensed-and-registered- provider-inspection-surveys/ ii. Identify the Lead Agency’s established timeline for posting monitoring reports and describe how it is timely: ECECD defines timely as no later than 45 days upon completion of each provider inspection. On the 5th of each month, the supervisor receives a report outlining all pending surveys that must be made public on the Sans Write public website portal. The supervisor has 10 days from the receipt of the report to review and publicize each survey onto the portal. 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. On-the-job training is provided upon hire in all aspects of ECECD's licensure requirements. All licensing inspectors receive ongoing relevant training. Licensing inspectors ae required to complete 24 hours of ongoing training annually. These hours may be accomplished through early childhood conferences, Quorum, NARA, and webinars. Ongoing training also occurs during monthly regional staff meetings and quarterly all-staff meetings. Training topics include but are not limited to trends in cited deficiencies, surveying process such as how to develop corrective action plans with providers, conducting root cause analysis. Guest speakers are also brought in to go over different topics of interest to the team. All Licensing inspectors must take the CCDF Preservice/orientation training that is required of providers and are NARA Certified or working on becoming certified. 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. ECECD follows the practice of utilizing a ratio of one inspector per 60 providers. In rural areas, this count may be lower to account for extensive drive times. This practice is cited in Module 6: Personnel, page 12 of the procedures and training manual for Regulatory Supervisors for managing staff caseload assignments. The manual is accessed by staff through SharePoint and is not available to the general public.