Tag: licensing

Posted in Business Practice, DHHS / OCFS

Required Evacuation Drills Clarification

Posted on by fccamaine

Here’s the initial response: ANY type of emergency disaster drill counts…some options that could be practiced: shelter in place, lost child, simulated relocation (staff, NOT KIDS TRANSPORTED unsafely in cars), severe weather, unknown person/suspicious situation, coming inside due to an emergency, etc.

Here’s the clarification: The language of the Licensing Rule specifies a requirement for 2 evacuation drills in rule SECTION 14. ENVIRONMENT AND SAFETY /Q. Emergency preparedness plan / 2. The Provider must conduct an evacuation drill at least twice a year and the dates must be recorded and be available for review. (Same section for Facility Rule. Q/2 language: The Child Care Facility must conduct an evacuation drill at least twice a year and the dates must be recorded and be available for review. A simulated drill is acceptable.)

The key word is “evacuation“.

Shelter-in-place drills of any kind that do not include evacuation, do not meet the emergency drill needed for rule compliance.

Let’s look at this more:

  • You already do monthly fire drills with the smoke alarm.
  • You already have a running log for fire drills.
  • You need to add 2 noted Evacuation drills to that log.
  • Reminder: FCC Rule Section 5/A-5: A record of fire drills for the preceding three years must be available for inspection by the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Public Safety, State Fire Marshal’s Office, and local fire inspectors.
  • For fire drills, you use different exits.

Practice any of the other types of safety drills you think would support the children, such as shelter-in-place, reverse evacuation, medical emergency and lost child. Log any Safety Drill you practice.

For evacuation drill:

  • Simulate it: practice the steps to gather and leave. Use the language specific to evacuation vs fire.
  • As part of your Emergency Preparedness Plan you should have multiple alternate sites you could evacuate to. It is recommended to have one you can walk to. For a walking site you could actually gather and leave your premises.
  • You are not required to transport children off the premises. If you do transport children as part of your program, you can practice transporting as part of your drill. If you do not transport, you can practice what loading everyone into a vehicle would be like in an emergency. Simulating this does not put any child in harms way as your vehicle is not running at any point. You just practice loading in, sitting still, and unloading. You could then pretend you are at the safe site and what would you do there?
Posted in Business Practice, DHHS / OCFS

Just Who Is a License-exempt Provider?

Posted on by fccamaine

Discussions continue around legally providing care within your home in Maine. Within these discussions the resources provided to add to the discussion have not all been timely. Part of the mission of the Family Child Care Association of Maine is to provide timely and accurate information when questions are raised around family child care. In our effort to support all legally operating family child care providers in Maine we reached out to licensing to get an answer that is up to date. We also want to clearly state that FCCAM feels that all legal in-home care options are an important part of the child care system in Maine.

Here is the information we received:

A family child care provider can care for up to 2 children not living in the home and remain unlicensed.  Maine Statute says a person can care for their own children living in their home and up to 2 children not living in their home for compensation and not be required to be licensed.  Once an individual cares for 3 or more children not living in their home they require licensure. 

FCCAM’s understanding is that an individual can have more than 2 children under contract for care, but only 2 can be receiving care within the home at the same time. For those looking at families wanting part-time care this can be important. This works the same way for licensed providers who provide care for clients needing part-time. It about juggling multiple children within the same careslot, so you are always within legal child/adult ratio.

Individuals providing care for up to 2 children are legal, but are not really labeled within the system by licensing unless they accept subsidy payments.

An individual providing care to up to 2 children not living in their home and accepting subsidy payments for one or both of those children, is referred to as a license-exempt (LE) provider by the state.

While the state does not label individual providers not accepting subsidy payments, FCCAM encourages any individual that is operating legally without needing to be licensed to refer to themselves as license-exempted. You are operating legally under state statutes. You are not licensed because you do not need to be. You are not operating illegally as an unlicensed provider caring for 3 or more children (not your own) at the same time.

FCCAM asked specifically about when the need for background checks and monitoring came into play for license-exempt providers.

Under the most recent Reauthorization of the Block Grant, a license-exempt (LE) provider that receives subsidy funds does have to complete Health and Safety training, needs to have background checks done and now needs to have a monitoring inspection annually to make sure they are meeting the basic health and safety requirements.  There are more requirements now then there used to be, these are just a few of them. 

An individual can reach out to the Child Care Subsidy Program to get a copy of the checklist that they send out to LE providers providing details of what is now required. 

The Health and Safety training is a 6 hr training you can access through Maine Roads to Quality (MRTQ). You will need to be on the registry for that. You can find out how to access from this post.

Monitoring inspections are now posted for the public to see as part of the Child Care Choices site.

One more piece of information ~ a licensed-exempt provider who is accepting subsidy payment can also participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).

Posted in Business Practice

Confidentiality

Posted on by fccamaine

The Professional Learning Committee of FCCAM has been doing a good bit of research and reading about policies and contract language the past few months as we have worked to build the new “Business Tool Kit” section of this site. The work has been good for reflection on our own policies, contracts and actual practices. It’s easy to get comfortable and even lax in practices. One known area this can occur in is maintaining confidentiality for children, families and staff.

Confidentiality seems like a simple straightforward concept, but the natural environment of a child care program can have some hidden pitfalls.

Think about how important it is for providers to build strong, trusting relationships between themselves, individual children and their families. Then throw in the developing connections between different children and families that naturally form within a program. Now add in the use of social media and technology for sharing what’s happening within your program through photos and videos.

Let’s look at some situations we know are found in family child care programs:

  • You hang pictures of children on the classroom wall or to mark their cubbies.
  • You make individual photo albums for gifting.
  • When a child leaves your program you give them a photo collection of their time with you.
  • You have a portfolio (paper or online) of a child’s development while with you you share at parent conferences.
  • A parent wants to invite children from the program to a birthday party and asks you for phone numbers or emails of other families.
  • You have a Facebook page (public or private) for your program where you post snippets from your day.

In each of these situations you could be breaking confidentiality. Any photo or video that shows multiple children together you share breaks confidentiality without having permission to share likeness for each child in the photo. Only share parent contact numbers/email after getting permission for specific event or maybe set up a program directory that is shared with all families as part of attending your program. Facebook, whether public or private, falls under the need for release to share likenesses of children. You need to have a written policy informing families of how you will handle confidentiality to both protect yourself and them.

Your basic policy doesn’t need to be long. It could be as simple as this to start: During the course of your association with (business name) you may see and hear things about other children or the child care’s business. Such information is protected by privacy laws and must be treated as strictly confidential.

  • Get written permission from a child’s legal guardian for sharing photos and videos.
  • Be sure to allow for permission to be denied.
  • Get separate written permission for any information that needs to be shared with individuals who will have to make decisions regarding the direct care of the child (health, safety and development).
  • The Business Tool Kit on this site provides a Permission to Use Likeness template you can copy to use as is or just as a starting point.

You can also include language within your handbook that informs families that you will provide general information about such areas as: food allergies within the program; specific health concerns that will impact activities within the program; and when contagious illnesses are present within the program. You still will not mention child or family specific details, just the general information which supports providing a safe environment for all children in care.

The following information is confidential, when it identifies a person directly or indirectly:

1. Child records, daily attendance lists, and all other information about children in care or formerly in care; and

2. All personnel records.

The Licensing Rule also requires licensees to have written permission or denial for use and distribution of images or personal information of the child on any publications, social media or promotional materials. Most relate this to just social media, but remember it covers any usage of a child’s likeness anywhere by you. Again, the Business Tool Kit on this site provides a Permission to Use Likeness template you can copy to use as is or just as a starting point.

Trust is a cornerstone of the foundation needed to build and foster positive relationships with and between staff, children, and families in your program. It’s important to remember maintaining confidentiality is important in building that trust.

With growing participation in local networks, face-to-face Community of Practices and Online Community of Practices, providers may unintentionally be lax in following through on maintaining confidentiality. When networking with other providers, it’s easy to forget to keep discussions very general when discussing an issue or concern that you would like support with. Remember ~ no names, or specific information that points to an individual child, family, or member of your staff.

This conversation on confidentiality also pertains to how you handle your staff’s private information.

Additional resources: