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: Abuse and Neglect Hotline. Complainants can call the West Virginia Department of Human Services abuse and neglect hotline at 1-800-352-6513 to submit a complaint regarding any child care provider. A general intake worker will receive the complaint then email the Bureau for Family Assistance (BFA), Division of Early Care and Education (ECE) Program Manager with details. The Program Manager then forwards the information to the applicable regulatory specialist for investigation. Consumer Education Website. A complaint can be made via the ECE website link at https://dhhr.wv.gov/bfa/ece/Pages/default.aspx. A prompt will appear in lower left corner that links directly to the ECE Complaints mailbox. Email. Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) staff submit a complaint via email to the Child Care Program Manager applicable to the provider type. An email can be submitted directly to the ECE Complaints email box at https://groups.google.com/a/wv.gov/g/ececomplaints. An email can be submitted directly to the ECE Providers email box at https://groups.google.com/a/wv.gov/g/eceproviders. Telephone. A complainant can contact the BFA, Division of ECE Regulation Unit Specialist, Supervisor, or Program Manager. Written Information. A ECE also takes complaints in written form via United States Postal Service (USPS) at the mailing address for the local Child Care Resource and Referral Agency or the West Virginia Department of Human Services, Bureau for Family Assistance, Division of Early Care and Education. The addresses are available on the ECE website https://dhhr.wv.gov/bfa/ece/Pages/default.aspx. b. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for families that speak languages other than English: WV DoHS currently contracts with 911 Interpreters to provide a wide array of services to families that speak languages other than English. Should a family have a complaint about a child care provider and present that complaint to their local child care resource and referral agency (CCR&R), the CCR&R will use the USDA I Speak Statements chart to better understand the language being spoken. Once the language has been determined, they will access 911 Interpreter services (whether that be via telephone, video, on-site or written translation dependent on the need of the client), to aid the client in filing a complaint. The child care resource and referral agency will then forward the complaint to WV DoHS child care regulatory management and refer the client to WV DoHS child care regulatory management regarding next steps in the complaint process. WV DoHS staff also use 911 Interpreters services and will use the service when working with the client regarding a child care provider complaint. Child care resource and referral agencies and WV DoHS can also work with families that speak a language other than English through the states system of colleges. West Virginia colleges and universities often have low-cost or free of charge services for this clientele to assist them in navigating various services such as child care. In West Virginia, 2.47% of the households report speaking a language other than English. With Spanish being the second most common language spoken, WV DoHS is exploring ways to best update their consumer education website to include the ability to change the language on each web page as well as having both English and Spanish documents available on the website. The website is being updated to include resources for individuals speaking languages other than English. c. Describe how the parental complaint process ensures broad access to services for persons with disabilities: Complaints regarding West Virginia’s licensed and regulated child care programs coming from individuals with disabilities can be filed in many ways. All offices ￿ WV DoHS and child care resource and referral agencies, for example ￿ are required to be ADA accessible. If a client has a hearing issue or a speech disability, 911 can be accessed to call or text (when an individual has been identified to receive the text) to file the complaint. Documents and forms can be enlarged to 18 font for ease of reading for clients who request it. Forms can be translated into other languages by 911 Interpreters for documents in braille or another language. WV DoHS staff and child care resource and referral staff can take client information and submit on their behalf an email in writing or through the current child care complaint email address available on the ECE consumer education website. The child care consumer education website is under review to ensure the content is accessible to people with disabilities such as color contrast in text, video captions where applicable, text size and zoom capability for example. In addition, the website is being updated to include resources for clients with disabilities. These resources will not only aid clients with disabilities in child care complaints but to navigate the child care system. 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: Once a complaint is received, it is assessed and determined as one of the following: A potential non-compliance with a rule or Non-compliance within another agency. If the complaint is within another agency, the complaint is referred to that agency. When the assessment is completed and a determination of non-compliance with a rule is identified, Child Care Policy requires the investigation to begin within five working days after being received. The investigation must be completed within 30 days of the onset of the investigation. Imminent danger complaints require an investigation to be initiated within 24 hours. The nature of the complaint will determine the response time to the complaint and what investigation methods will be used. Child Care Policy: https://dhhr.wv.gov/bfa/ece/Documents/CHILD%20CARE%20POLICY_Final_04262022.pd f [ ] No. e. For substantiated parental complaints, who maintains the record for CCDF and non-CCDF providers? The recording substantiated complaints is a Program Manager function for the Child Care Licensing Unit and the Family Child Care Unit. Monthly reports are submitted by each program manager and compiled into the aggregate report posted on the Consumer Education website. 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: The Consumer Education Website includes the aggregate data report posted monthly for a three (3) year timeframe. Specific categories include serious injuries, deaths, substantiated child abuse, and the total number of children in care. Direct link: https://dhhr.wv.gov/bcf/Childcare/Documents/_VSerious%20Injury%20Abuse%20Neglect %20and%20Death.pdf In addition to the consumer education website, parents and the general public can contact the applicable specialist or regulation management with questions and information inquiry. The Locator includes corrective action plans issued for non- compliance related to substantiated complaints along with other non-compliance observed.