Wisconsin Department of Children and Families - Division of Early Care and Education
Bureau of Early Care Regulation
Child Care Certification Policy Manual
In accordance with DCF 202.06(7)(b) the certification worker may issue a warning of revocation. When the certification worker has documented violations and issued a noncompliance statement(s), and the operator has not corrected the violations, the certification worker may issue a warning of revocation before proceeding with revocation.
The letter should indicate the time frame or deadline with which the operator must comply / correct the violation(s) before action to revoke certification is taken.
A certified operator cannot appeal a warning letter. A warning letter is a tool that may:
Increase the impact of a Noncompliance Statement and Correction Plan.
Report to the operator, in addition to a noncompliance statement, that telephone service to the child care program is unavailable and the consequences if the service is not restored.
Inform the operator about two failed attempts to gain entrance to the child care for on-site monitoring and the consequences should monitoring not be allowed.
Address other unique circumstances.
The warning letter informs an operator that failure to correct the violation, admit entry, restore telephone services, etc. could or will result in a sanction of suspension or revocation. A warning letter is most often used to call the operator’s attention to reoccurring uncorrected violations of the administrative rule.
The certification worker may attach a warning letter to a Noncompliance Statement when (including, but not limited to):
Previous efforts to gain compliance through issuance of one or more Noncompliance Statements have failed or when the operator has been given a reasonable amount of time to correct one or more violations cited on the Noncompliance Statement and has shown little effort to address the violation(s).
Numerous violations are cited. If the sheer number of violations suggests a situation exists that is dangerous to the health, safety or welfare of the children in care but suspension is not warranted, a warning letter is another tool to gain compliance.
Repeated violations are cited. When uncorrected or reoccurring violations that pose a threat to the health, safety and welfare of children in care a warning letter may be appropriate.
Phone service is disconnected. The warning letter accompanied by the Noncompliance Statement warns that failure to provide a working telephone constitutes danger to the health, safety and welfare of children in care.
It is not advisable to issue warning letters repeatedly if/when it becomes clear that the warning letter is not altering the operator’s behavior in correcting the violation(s). The warning letter should not be used when also issuing a sanction/enforcement such as a denial, suspension or revocation.
When a warning letter does not bring about compliance, the next step may be to initiate revocation or suspension. There may be many factors, however, which impact the decision whether or not to move towards such a sanction(s), such as the following:
The operator’s previous compliance history has been satisfactory and based on previous experience with the operator it is likely that compliance will be achieved.
The recent violations that necessitated the warning letter do not appear to be part of an ongoing pattern of the child care operator.
The operator appears to be making progress toward correcting one or more of the violations but has not yet accomplished what is required to verify correction of all violations.
There are extenuating circumstances, such as illness, preventing the operator from addressing the violation.
Certification workers shall document the warning in the Enforcements Module in WISCCRS and upload the letter in the Enforcements Module (unless the document contains confidential information). Should a revocation or suspension become necessary, the warning letter is useful as evidence of the certification worker’s attempt to bring the operator into compliance.
This page last updated 01/2020.