Wisconsin Department of Children and Families - Division of Early Care and Education
Bureau of Early Care Regulation
Child Care Licensing Procedure Manual
When the investigation is completed, the licensing specialist must organize and analyze the information and evidence collected in order to reach a finding regarding each alleged violation and determine the appropriate subsequent action(s) to take. All of the factual information collected during the investigation may or may not relate to the investigation at hand. All irrelevant information should be set aside so that only that information that will support or disprove the allegation(s) of a rule violation is considered when reaching the finding. The investigative information should be sorted according to which licensing rule(s) the evidence applies to, then evaluated in a thorough and unbiased manner. The strength of the evidence either supporting or refuting each potential rule violation should be evaluated according to the following factors:
How credible is the information gathered during the investigation? A fact that has at least one or more pieces of corroborating evidence is more credible. If the information about existing conditions or practices is inconsistent with physical evidence, then the facts gleaned from the interviews and records is less credible;
How credible are the witnesses? Has more than one person observed the same thing? Consider the witness’ cognitive skills, seeming truthfulness, motivations and biases and the extent to which vantage point or access to information may introduce error or misinterpretation. Each witness’ personal interest in the outcome of the investigation should be considered;
How competent are the witnesses? For example, young children and cognitively impaired adults may not always be competent witnesses. However, children rarely have the capacity to make untrustworthy comments about sexual abuse. Skillful interviewing and observation, as well as other evidence, will help establish each witness’ competence;
What is the probable accuracy and correct interpretation of documents or other physical evidence? For example, although a document may seem to suggest a certain interpretation, are there alternative scenarios that would support an alternative interpretation? The licensing specialist must evaluate the evidence by ruling in and ruling out optional scenarios that would explain the evidence;
What is the extent to which the internal consistency or lack thereof, on balance, supports or does not support the potential for the administrative rule violation(s)?
This page last updated 01/2017.