Wisconsin Department of Children and Families - Division of Early Care and Education
Bureau of Early Care Regulation
Child Care Licensing Procedure Manual
On each monitoring visit, the licensing specialist documents in the mobile app whether each rule under review is met, unmet or not applicable. A rule marked met means that the center is in compliance with the requirement set forth in the administrative rule. A rule marked unmet means that the center is not conforming to the administrative rule requirement. Not applicable rules are those rules that pertain to services not offered by the center (e.g., transportation), hazards that are not present at the center (e.g. hot tubs) or requirements for the licensee that do not apply (e.g., special requirements for licensees that own more than one center). (See 4.1)
The licensing specialist may be unable to observe compliance with all applicable administrative rules on the day of the monitoring visit. Using his or her professional judgement, the licensing specialist may determine that certain rules must be observed before s/he will mark them as met or unmet, and that other rules can be marked as met or unmet based on a discussion of the rule with the licensee (and/or review of internal procedures or records). (Note exception to this policy described in Section 4.3.3 of this chapter.)
When the licensing specialist is not able to monitor an administrative rule on the day of the visit, the licensing specialist must determine next steps and may consider any of the following options:
Return to the center to review the rule(s) that could not be observed at the visit. The licensing specialist may announce to the licensee when the return visit will be made to ensure that it will be possible to observe the rule at the subsequent visit.
Question the licensee (or staff person in charge on the day of the visit) to determine the center’s understanding and compliance with the rule. Based on this discussion (and/or review of the internal procedures or records), the licensing specialist may document that the rule is met. This is permissible because the licensing specialist did not observe the licensee to be out of compliance at the time of the visit and the discussion with the licensee or staff member confirms that staff understand and are applying the rule as required.
Document that the rule is unmet because the discussion with the licensee or other documentation demonstrates to the licensing specialist that the licensee does not understand and is not applying the rule as required in the administrative code. The licensing specialist provides technical assistance on meeting the rule, the rule is marked unmet in the mobile app and the violation is therefore cited and described on the Noncompliance Statement and Correction Plan.
The licensing specialist may determine it is not necessary to document a rule as unmet in the mobile app after discussing a violation and providing technical assistance to the licensee. Making a decision to mark the rule as met following provision of technical assistance does not mean that the violation goes unacknowledged or uncorrected. It simply means that recording it as unmet seems unnecessary, usually because the technical assistance provided will ensure the rule is met, the licensing specialist was able to observe correction of the violation and/or it is a relatively minor violation. (See 3.2 in this chapter for more information on how to determine whether a violation should be cited.)
If desired, the licensing specialist may document in the Internal Comments field that the rule was discussed and who was present for the discussion. Provision of technical assistance can also be documented in the Internal Comments field, especially if that is the basis for not marking the rule unmet.
4.3. When Some Administrative Rules Could Not Be Monitored on the Day of the Visit
4.3.1 Examples of Rules Marked Without Direct Observation
4.3.2 When the Licensing Specialist is Unable to Monitor a Health and Safety Rule on Day of Visit
4.3.3 Direct Observation of Vehicle Alarm Compliance
This page last updated 11/2019.