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: There are a number of different ways where parents can submit complaints about child care providers to the Lead Agency. All persons in Rhode Island are required by law (RIGL 40-11-3) to report known or suspected cases of child abuse and/or neglect to the Department of Children, Youth, and Families within 24 hours of becoming aware of such abuse/neglect through their child abuse hotline (1-800-RI-CHILD). This hotline is operated 24 hours a day,365 days a year. Reports of suspected abuse and/or neglect related to both licensed and license exempt child care providers are filtered through the hotline. If the complaint rises to the level of DCYF investigation, the Department of Children, Youth and Families will investigate and coordinate with Lead Agency on their findings and potential next steps. If the complaint does not rise to the level of suspected abuse or neglect, and is more regulatory in nature, it will be directed back to the lead agency for follow up. At that time, the lead agency will conduct a complaint or unannounced monitoring visit, depending on the situation. Additionally, anyone can file a complaint regarding both licensed and licensed exempt providers directly with the lead agency. Complaints related to licensed providers are directed to the main child care licensing email (DHS.ChildCareLicensing@dhs.ri.gov). Complaints related to license exempt providers are directed to the CCAP email (DHS.ChildCare@dhs.ri.gov). Complaints received by the lead agency may be called into the DCYF hotline by the lead agency if the complaint seems to include suspected abuse and/or neglect. Regardless of the access point for the complaint, all complaints are logged in the states provider data system and addressed on an individualized basis. b. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for families that speak languages other than English: The lead agency supports both English and Spanish speakers. Additional translation services are available through various vendors if needed. c. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for persons with disabilities: Complaints can be logged via phone call or in writing. In the circumstance that there is a disability that prevents either of these from being accessible to the person, DHS is able to access the services of the Rhode Island Office of Rehabilitative Services (ORS). The ORS Associate Director is also the Associate Director of the Office of Child Care and is incorporated into the Lead Agency￿s governance structure. 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: Complaints received by DCYF’s child abuse hotline regarding both licensed and licensed exempt providers are reviewed internally by DCYF to determine if the report meets investigatory criteria. If an investigatory criterion is met, the timeline for this investigation is determined by DCYF’s internal operating procedures as it pertains to Child Abuse Neglect Investigations (http://www.dcyf.ri.gov/policies/ ) Any complaint received by DCYF that does not meet investigatory criteria is documented in the state’s child welfare and licensing system using the licensed child care providers unique provider identification number. A report being entered in RICHIST automatically sends a notice to the lead agency that the complaint was received. This notification includes specific information related to the complaint. These redirected reports, as well as any complaint regarding a licensed provider received by the lead agency, are responded to by the lead agency within three (3) to five (5) business days depending on the severity of the complaint. This response may be in the form either a visit, phone call or email to the provider requesting follow up documentation related to the complaint. If the complaint presents a risk to children’s health or safety (that is not imminent), a visit is conducted to the provider within those 3-5 business days. During the visit, the licensing staff will inform the provider about the nature of the visit (while maintaining anonymity of the person who made the complaint), and the applicable regulations associated with the complaint. This visit is documented on the lead agencies licensing monitoring report. This report outlines all observations from the visit, including any noncompliance to regulations that was observed. These observations are used to determine if the complaint should be substantiated. If either the substantiated complaint or the observations made during the visit are severe or reflect a history of serious noncompliance, licensing action maybe initiated by the lead agency. [ ] No. e. For substantiated parental complaints, who maintains the record for CCDF and non-CCDF providers? For licensed child care providers, both substantiated abuse and/or neglect allegations received by DCYF and substantiated parental complaints received by the Lead Agency are documented in the shared data system used for both child welfare and child care provider data (RICHIST). In addition, the Lead Agency has its own database for documenting complaints that are provided to the Licensing Unit. Documenting it in both places attaches specific complaints and correspondences to a provider in our RICHIST system and provides the Lead Agency with the ability run comprehensive reports on the complaints received for ongoing monitoring. Both methods are documented as such, regardless of how the complaint was substantiated. If the complaint resulted in a visit to the provider by the Lead Agency, the monitoring visit report is posted to the lead agency’s consumer website and shared electronically with the provider. These are in plain language to ensure families searching for care can identify and understand the outcome of the complaint. License exempt providers are not part of this system as the lead agency only approves particular relatives to be approved for this service type. Parental complaints for license exempt providers would be managed by DCYF as a family matter, not a child care matter. 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: Substantiated parent complaints that result in a visit by the Lead Agency produce a monitoring visit report that is then posted on the consumer website.