Wisconsin Department of Children and Families - Division of Early Care and Education
Bureau of Early Care Regulation
Child Care Licensing Procedure Manual
Licensing specialists perform ongoing monitoring of facilities with regular, non-expiring licenses to determine compliance with all administrative rules. The monitoring plan is assigned by the licensing specialist based on the center’s size, compliance history and the status of the license (regular or probationary). The licensing specialist must make the minimum number of required visits per year according to the monitoring plan assignment and may make additional visits, as time permits, to establish compliance. Visits are unannounced unless a scheduled visit is necessary to provide technical assistance, for example, or to review records kept at a separate location. The licensing specialist utilizes a licensing checklist in the mobile app. to ensure that all administrative rules are reviewed for each facility during a two-year period.
In addition, the licensing specialist must ensure that a subset of child care administrative rules is reviewed for compliance annually. This subset includes administrative rules in 10 health and safety areas identified in the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant and also includes additional rules identified in Wisconsin as critical to health and safety protections of children in care. This subset of the rules is contained in the Annual Health and Safety Rule Tag in the mobile app.
Licensing specialists may decide, with the approval of the licensing manager/licensing supervisor, to visit a group or family child care center during night care hours if the center operates during any period of time between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. Likewise, with the same approval, licensing specialists may choose to make a weekend monitoring visit to those centers that offer Saturday and/or Sunday hours.
A Noncompliance Statement and Correction Plan (CFS-294) or Compliance Statement (CFS-785) must be issued at each monitoring visit unless the visit is solely for the purpose of providing technical assistance, license amendment, initial licensing prior to issuing a probationary license, verifying correction of one or more previously identified violations (when no other monitoring occurred), and investigating a complaint or incident/accident report that does not result in a noncompliance (when no other monitoring occurred).
When a CFS-294 is issued, the licensing specialist should attempt to verify correction of all violations and document this at the next on-site monitoring visit. When the licensee has a history of poor compliance, the licensing specialist should schedule the next monitoring visit as soon as possible after the expected correction completion date to verify that the violations have been corrected.
It is not always possible to verify correction of all violations at the next on-site visit, due to factors outside the control of the licensee, such as weather, timing of the verification visit, unexpected delays in arranging facility repairs, etc. The licensing specialist can discuss this with the licensee and determine a reasonable time line for correction of each violation. For more information about CFS–294/CFS-785 procedures, see the Noncompliance Statement and Correction Plan and Compliance Statement chapter in the Monitoring section of this manual.
5. Ongoing Monitoring - Facilities with Regular, Non-Expiring Licenses
5.1.1. Monitoring Child and Staff Records
5.1.2. Monitoring for Background Check Compliance
5.1.2.1 Background Check Results Violations
5.1.2.2 When the CFS-294 is Issued by the CBU
5.1.3. Staff File and Center Policy Review for Facilities that Cross Regional Boundaries
5.1.4 When Some Administrative Rules Cannot Be Monitored on the Day of the Visit
5.1.5 Monitoring Child Safety Alarms in Child Care Vehicles
This page last updated 12/2018.