Wisconsin Department of Children and Families - Division of Early Care and Education
Bureau of Early Care Regulation
Child Care Licensing Procedure Manual
Monitoring activity standards establish the minimum number of on-site visits to licensed child care facilities that the Bureau of Early Care Regulation (BECR) licensing specialists from the are expected to make during specific time frames in order to monitor for compliance with licensing statute and rules. These monitoring activity standards exist to protect and promote the health, safety, and welfare of children in licensed programs, and to ensure consistent licensing and oversight of applicants and licensees across the state.
A monitoring visit may be brief or may involve a lengthy, in-depth compliance inspection. Visits to a center often begin with an initial observational walk-through of the center by the licensing specialist. The walk-through provides the licensing specialist with an overall impression of the center and may point to specific areas of the administrative rule that require more thorough monitoring.
On each monitoring visit, the licensing specialist observes and documents each program’s compliance with licensing rules using the appropriate program-specific licensing checklist. Each checklist includes all administrative rules relevant to that particular type of regulated facility. Over a two-year period, all administrative rules must be reviewed for each licensee.
In addition, the licensing specialist must ensure that a subset of administrative rules is reviewed for compliance annually. This subset is comprised of 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 identified as the Annual Health and Safety Rule Tag in the iPad-based Licensor Checklist Mobile Application (mobile app.).
The mobile app. is the tool used by the licensing specialist to record the results of each monitoring visit. The licensing specialist identifies the rules that are met or unmet (or not applicable for the particular center under review) in the mobile app. and this information is automatically synchronized into the Wisconsin Child Care Regulatory System (WISCCRS) the database that stores child care compliance information and is the electronic facility file.
The licensing specialist documents the reason for and outcome of each monitoring visit and based on the results of each visit, may reassign the center to a different monitoring plan for future visits.
Either a Noncompliance Statement and Correction Plan (DCF-F-CFS0294, hereafter referred to as CFS-294) or Compliance Statement (DCF-F-CFS785, hereafter referred to as CFS-785) documenting visit results must be issued at each monitoring visit unless the visit is solely for the purpose of providing technical assistance, license amendment, initial licensing study 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).
During routine monitoring visits, there is an expectation that BECR staff and the licensee will treat each other as professionals, free of discrimination, and with fairness, courtesy, dignity, consideration, and respect. Upon arrival at the facility, the licensing specialist should provide photo identification, inform the licensee that s/he is there to conduct a visit and indicate the type of visit that will be carried out. While in the center, the licensing specialist should be professional and approachable. The licensing specialist should make every effort to prevent the interruption of normal facility operations whenever an unannounced visit occurs.
The licensing specialist offers an exit interview at the end of each visit, reporting the results of the visit to the licensee or the licensee’s designee. The licensing specialist may wish to leave a business card with contact information with the licensee if the contact information has been updated. If requested, the licensing specialist must inform the licensee of the name and contact information of the licensing specialist’s supervisor. If time permits, the licensing specialist may offer technical assistance when the licensee receives a monitoring visit that identifies violations. Licensing specialists should also remind the licensee that BECR is interested in receiving feedback on the services provided to licensed child care centers and direct him/her to the customer satisfaction survey links on the DCF Internet page. These links are also identified on the CFS-294 cover sheet and CFS-785.
The licensee may ask to have a witness of the licensee’s choosing present to observe and document a visit. However, the visit begins when the licensing specialist arrives.
This page last updated 12/2018.