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1 Child Care Regulation Legislative Audit Bureau January 2010.

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Presentation on theme: "1 Child Care Regulation Legislative Audit Bureau January 2010."— Presentation transcript:

1 1 Child Care Regulation Legislative Audit Bureau January 2010

2 2 Regulated Child Care u Regulation is intended to protect the health and safety of children in care u Wisconsin Shares subsidizes care in either licensed or certified child care facilities u Regulatory responsibilities are shared by the Department of Children and Families and by county and tribal agencies

3 3 Licensed and Certified Child Care Facilities

4 4 Wisconsin Shares Subsidy Payments to Child Care Facilities

5 5 Caseloads of State Licensing Specialists

6 6 Regulating and Enforcing Child Safety u In FY 2008-09, most of the 1,675 completed applications for licensure or certification were approved u DCF licensing staff typically conduct unannounced regulatory visits, while practices vary among the counties we contacted u Regulatory visits to licensed and certified facilities were conducted primarily to monitor compliance with child care rules

7 7 Timeliness of Regulatory Visits u DCF establishes visit frequency for each facility, based on its licensing and compliance history u As of June 2009, 617 licensed facilities were overdue for a visit u Administrative code requires certified facilities be visited at recertification, which is typically every two years u Available data indicate timely visits to certified facilities

8 8 Enforcing Child Care Rules u Licensing specialists conducted 28,549 regulatory visits to licensed facilities in a three-year period u 30 visits resulted in more than 40 citations for rules violations u Licensing citations vary by region u County and tribal staff conducted 19,582 regulatory visits over a five-year period

9 9 Attendance Record Violations u Routine regulatory visits include review of daily attendance records for accuracy and completeness u Citations for attendance record violations may indicate Wisconsin Shares payment errors u Licensing and certification staff do not always know which children are receiving subsidized care

10 10 Sanctions Against Licensed Child Care Providers u Sanctions against licensed facilities progress in severity from orders letters to immediate closure u Some facilities are repeatedly sanctioned: 57 facilities received more than 5 sanctions since FY 2004-05

11 11 Background Checks u We compared DCF’s available electronic information on child care facilities with criminal history records maintained by the Department of Justice and child abuse and neglect records maintained by DCF u In 8 cases, convicted felons or persons who had abused children were employed by or living at child care facilities u Operators of 184 licensed and 20 certified child care facilities were overdue for criminal background checks

12 12 Continued Legislative Monitoring of DCF’s Efforts u June 30 report to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee on its efforts to improve and strengthen child care regulation u Monthly reporting to the Joint Committee on Finance on fraud prevention and investigation, as well as on overpayment collections

13 13 Child Care Regulation Legislative Audit Bureau January 2010


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