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 may submit complaints to ECECD about child care providers by calling the Early Childhood Education and Care Intake Center at 1-888-351-0037 or via email: ChildCare.Complaint@ececd.nm.gov. The contact information to report complaints is also posted on the consumer website: https://www.nmececd.org. b. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for families that speak languages other than English: ECECD’s consumer website has a translation feature for the preferred language of the consumer. The Early Childhood Education and Care Intake Center is staffed by two individuals who will contact the necessary language link representative for interpretation assistance. c. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for persons with disabilities: ECECD’s consumer education website is geared toward user experience design features using formats to support wide access for individuals with disabilities. The web design is responsive, and content automatically adjusts to fit the device. All webpages are designed to be viewed in a user’s browser and operating system, and all webpages, documents and links are tested in development prior to being added to the production site. Moreover, the information on the website is readable with Screen Reader, and audio and video files. 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: All complaints come through ECECD, either through the Early Childhood Education and Care Intake Call Center or directly through field offices. All complaints and incidents are investigated by ECECD in a timely manner as follows: Priority 1 complaint investigations are initiated within 24 hours; Priority 2 complaint investigations are initiated within three working days; and Priority 3 complaint investigations are initiated within five working days. Initiation timeframes for investigations may be shortened based on the severity and nature of the complaint, but timeframes may not be extended. All complaints involving the health, safety, or welfare of a child will be reviewed and prioritized immediately according to the nature and severity of the complaint. Established protocols and procedures for prioritizing, tracking, initiating, and reporting of complaints and complaint investigations are followed. If a complaint is substantiated, ECECD will make the complaint part of the provider’s file and the following actions will, at the discretion of the licensing authority, be taken: (1) require the provider to submit and comply with written corrective action plan; (2) sanction the provider administratively including, without limitation, suspension, revocation, or restriction of a license; or (3) referral to law enforcement for criminal investigation or pursuit of civil remedies. Additional monitoring visits to the provider will be conducted to ensure correction of deficiencies cited in relation to any substantiated complaint. There are no differences in the processes for CCDF and non-CCDF providers and licensed and licensed-exempt providers. [ ] No. e. For substantiated parental complaints, who maintains the record for CCDF and non-CCDF providers? ECECD maintains the record of complaints for CCDF and non-CCDF providers. All complaints and incidents are entered into a centralized statewide database, which contains a record of referrals, substantiated complaints, and their priority levels. Documentation relating to substantiated complaints against a facility are also kept with the local ECECD child care office. 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: ECECD posts substantiated complaint survey reports on its consumer education website. Survey reports are maintained on the website for three years. There is a 10-year retention requirement for all such records. Information may also be requested from ECECD pursuant to the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act.