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. response planning and procedures 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] [ ] [ ] 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: Newly licensed centers and school age programs are visited prior to licensure and then again within the first six months of operation. After that initial visit, they will be inspected two times a year. More frequent visits will occur during a probationary period, in response to a complaint or as a follow up to ensure that noncompliance from a previous visit has been rectified. [ ] 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: Once a program is licensed their inspections include the same monitoring approach and review of standards at each visit. A program on a Probationary status may only have specific health and safety standards reviewed during inspections occurring during the probationary period. However, a full monitoring visit is completed prior to removing the probationary status. iv. Identify which department or agency is responsible for completing the inspections for licensed center-based providers. The lead agency - the Department of Human Services, completes the inspections. 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: Newly licensed family child care homes are visited prior to licensure and then again within the first six months of operation. After that initial visit, they will be inspected yearly. More frequent visits will occur during a probationary period, in response to a complaint or as a follow up to ensure that noncompliance from a previous visit has been rectified. [ ] 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: Once a program is licensed their inspections include the same monitoring approach and review of standards at each visit. A program on a Probationary status may only have specific health and safety standards reviewed during inspections occurring during the probationary period. However, a full monitoring visit is completed prior to removing the probationary status iv. Identify which department or agency is responsible for completing the inspections for licensed family child care providers. The lead agency is responsible for completing the inspections ￿ the Department of Human Services. 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: The Lead Agency does not have license exempt center based providers. 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: [ ] Annually. [ ] More than once a year. If more than once a year, describe: [x] Other. If other, describe: N/A 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. N/A 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. N/A 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: N/A 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: Health and Safety violations are prominently displayed in the inspection reports that are posted for the public. The risk level of each standard that was monitored for is also prominently displayed. There is an option for additional discussion topics that allows a narrative to be entered by the inspector into the report. This can include the reason for the visit, such as the result of a fatality or serious injury. These are routinely updated as providers make progress towards their correction action plan. iii. [x] Corrective action plans taken by the Lead Agency and/or child care provider. Describe: The corrective action plan is currently built into the posted summary. 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: https://earlylearningprograms.dhs.ri.gov/ ii. Identify the Lead Agency’s established timeline for posting monitoring reports and describe how it is timely: Inspections are typically posted within 72 hours of the visit being completed and are posted no more than 90 days after the visit was completed. 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. The Lead Agency developed a series of eight modules for the purpose of onboarding new licensing inspectors. Over the course of these modules, licensors (the term the lead agency uses to identify licensing inspectors) are trained on the following topics: foundations of licensing, regulations, general child care practices, monitoring systems, the technology used by the units, child abuse and neglect (identification and reporting process) as well as the system for handling complaints related to child care. Additionally, new licensors are required to view the same health and safety modules as required of new child care providers. In conjunction with viewing these modules, licensors are also teamed up to shadow seasoned staff. Supervisory staff complete reliability checks with licensors at a minimum of once every three months to ensure that licensed child care providers are being monitored effectively and accurately. 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 average caseload for a licensing inspector is 135-140. The Lead Agency recently created new position within the unit that will be responsible for all new centers and family child care providers (up to the point of licensure) as well as all probationary visits. In 2019, when the licensing unit transitioned back to the lead agency, the State used a national consulting group to support that transition. Part of that process included assessing caseloads of inspectors. It was determined at that time that no additional staff were needed. The State completed an informal time study last year which found no significant gaps or issues regarding productivity. Caseloads and individual are tracked via inspector to ensure that all providers are being monitored in a timely fashion and aligned with state statute.