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 public may contact the regional Certification offices to report complaints. All regional offices maintain a toll-free number. Contact information for the regional offices is available online at: https://www.dhs.pa.gov/contact/Pages/Regional-Child-Development- Offices.aspx. The public may contact the Childline hotline to report complaints of child abuse by calling 1-800-932-0313 or by visiting https://www.compass.dhs.pa.gov/providersearch/#/childcareprovidersearch and clicking on the prompt to submit a complaint . All substantiated complaints and inspections of child care centers, group child care homes and family child care homes are maintained online on the COMPASS website at: https://www.compass.state.pa.us/Compass.Web/ProviderSearch/Home#/BasicSearch Substantiated parental complaints have been maintained electronically since 2008. b. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for families that speak languages other than English: Parents who do not speak English may contact their local regional office to file a child care compliant. OCDEL staff will utilize the language line to assist with interpretation. c. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for persons with disabilities: Telecommunications relay services (TRS) allow people who are deaf, hard of hearing and/or have speech and language disorders to make and receive telephone calls. In addition, sign language interpreters are available at local county assistance offices to assist those who may be hearing impaired. 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: The process for complaints is the same for licensed providers regardless of CCDF funding. All complaints of regulatory non-compliance are first reviewed by supervisors at the OCDEL Bureau of Certification Services, to assess the risk level, then assigned to a certification representative for investigation. Timelines are based on risk assessments. Licensed providers have 3 risk levels: High risk (5 calendar days); Medium risk (10-15 days dependent upon the allegations); Lesser risk (25 days). Non-licensed providers have 2 risk levels: High risk (5 days), and Medium risk (15 days). The certification representative has 40 days to submit documentation of the results of their complaint investigation to their supervisor. When a complaint is substantiated on a licensed provider, OCDEL may take legal action against the facility’s certificate of compliance which includes a monitoring component. These findings may be shared with the complainant. When a complaint is substantiated on non-licensed provider, OCDEL takes legal action against the uncertified facility which includes a monitoring component. Furthermore, all records of substantiated complaints and inspections of child care centers, group and family child care homes are maintained in the COMPASS website located at https://www.compass.state.pa.us/Compass.Web/ProviderSearch/Home#/BasicSearch. If a certification supervisor and/or certification representative learns the complaint is on a license-exempt provider, a non-licensed provider risk assessment is completed, and a referral is made to the appropriate entity. The certification representative also provides information on how to become a licensed provider. [ ] No. e. For substantiated parental complaints, who maintains the record for CCDF and non-CCDF providers? All substantiated parental complaints for CCDF and non-CCDF providers are maintained publicly online on the COMPASS website at https://www.compass.state.pa.us/Compass.Web/ProviderSearch/Home#/BasicSearch. If a certification supervisor and/or certification representative learns the complaint is on an unlicensed provider, an unlicensed provider risk assessment is completed. If it is determined the provider is licensed by another agency a referral is made to the appropriate agency. The certification representative also provides information on how to become a licensed provider. Pennsylvania does not have license-exempt child care providers. 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: Pennsylvania’s consumer education website is www.dhs.pa.gov. Embedded in this website is a link to COMPASS. The public can access the substantiated complaint information via the COMPASS website at https://www.compass.state.pa.us/Compass.Web/ProviderSearch/Home#/BasicSearch or www.findchildcare.pa.gov.