Child Care Regulation

1. Child Care Regulation Legislative Audit Bureau January 2010

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

3. Licensed and Certified Child Care Facilities

4. Wisconsin Shares Subsidy Payments to Child Care Facilities

5. Caseloads of State Licensing Specialists

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

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

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

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

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

11. Background Checks • 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 • In 8 cases, convicted felons or persons who had abused children were employed by or living at child care facilities • Operators of 184 licensed and 20 certified child care facilities were overdue for criminal background checks

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

13. Child Care Regulation Legislative Audit Bureau January 2010