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: CDD maintains a Child Care Consumer Line that anyone, including parents, can call to share concerns and file complaints about child care providers. This line is staffed by child care licensors who are also trained to provide information to families about the health and safety of children in child care. Additionally, the state has an online form that allows anyone, including parents to submit complaints online. https://dcf.vermont.gov/cdd/contact/consumer-line b. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for families that speak languages other than English: AHS has an accessibility policy that all divisions, including CDD, must comply with that includes how persons who speak languages other than English can access resources. Vermont provides access to translation and/or interpretation services upon request. Information on how to access these services is provided on CDD's website and within BFIS. c. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for persons with disabilities: Vermont's Agency of Human Services has an accessibility policy for persons with disabilities that the Department for Children and Families, including CDD, must comply with that includes how persons with disabilities can access resources. Vermont provides access to interpretation services for the deaf and hard-of-hearing through 711 when requested. Information on how to access services is provided on CDD's website and within BFIS. 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: Each complaint is received and entered into BFIS. Within BFIS, there is a section for identifying the specific regulatory non-compliance allegations which are then linked to a specific childcare licensing regulation. Upon conclusion of the complaint investigation, the licensing inspector identifies one of three allegation outcomes (substantiated, unsubstantiated, or unable to determine). In addition, the licensor issues a licensing site visit report which identifies the findings. This report is linked to the complaint investigation log. This process applies to all licensed childcare programs whether or not they participate in the investigation. Complaints are reviewed by the licensing supervisory team within twenty-four (24) business hours of receipt. Complaints are accepted for investigation when the allegations include information that suggests there may be possible rule violations and assigned to a licensing field specialist for investigation. Complaint investigations are commenced within three (3) to five (5) business days depending on the severity of concern reported. Allegations of abuse and neglect are referred to a Special Investigation team within FSD. CDD co-investigates allegations of abuse and neglect accepted by Residential Licensing and Special Investigations ("RLSI") and these investigations are commenced within twenty-four (24) to forty-eight (48) hours of receipt of the complaint depending on the severity of the concern. CDD co-investigates allegations of seclusion, restraint, and suspension/expulsion with the AOE in all public and private Universal Pre-Kindergarten ("UPK") programs. When the licensing field specialist collects evidence that there is a rule violation it is documented as factual basis and a substantiation/violation is issued to the program along with corrective action. Programs are given a timeframe by which their corrective action must be completed. When there is not clear and convincing evidence of a rule violation the licensing field specialist has the option of not substantiating the violation or issuing an "unable to determine" finding in the case. CDD does not specify the amount of time a licensing field specialist has to complete their investigation and issue a determination as there are a number of factors that can influence timing (i.e., coordination and waiting for RLSI to issue a determination, coordination with AOE, access to interview parties connected to the allegations), however, the practice is to prioritize these investigations and most are completed within 30 calendar days or less. CDD complaint investigations do include onsite monitoring and the completion of a site visit report. [ ] No. e. For substantiated parental complaints, who maintains the record for CCDF and non-CCDF providers? Complaints are maintained in BFIS, within a licensed childcare program’s account. Each complaint has a section for identifying the specific regulatory non- compliance allegations which are then linked to a specific childcare licensing regulation. In addition, after the completion of the investigation, the licensor issues a licensing site visit report which identifies the findings. This report is linked to the complaint investigation log. This process applies to all licensed childcare programs whether they participate in CCDF or not. 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: When violations are cited during a complaint investigation, the licensor issues a licensing site visit report that cites the violation(s), requires corrective action, and issues a completion date for the required corrective action. Licensing site visit reports for complaints in which one or more violations are cited result in the violations automatically being posted to the public BFIS website which any community member may review. Licensing site visit reports that cite serious violations are also required to be posted in a location clearly visible to childcare parents for at least fifteen days. When a serious violation is cited, the childcare program is required to mail or email the full licensing site visit report to all parents. All child care programs regulations provide information on the complaint process and are accessible on CDD's website.