Child Care Licensing Specialist; Dover

Child Care Licensing Specialist (Dover)

Christina School District – Dover, DE.

Child Care Licensing Supervisor

The Child Care Licensing Specialist position is responsible for conducting on-site regional child care monitoring visits at licensed family child care homes, large family child care homes, early care and education and school-age centers, youth camps accepting Purchase of Care subsidies, Residential Child Care Facilities and Day Treatment Programs, and Child Placing Agencies to verify regulation compliance, provide technical assistance, and lead training sessions.

The child care licensing specialist is also responsible for investigating allegations of unlicensed child care and conducts complaint investigations when regulation non-compliance in licensed facilities is alleged.

• Maintains a proficient working knowledge of the applicable statutes, rules, regulations, policies, procedures, and community resources which provide the framework for the child care regulation process.
• Understands, retains, applies, and communicates regulation requirements in multiple sets of DELACARE Regulations.
• Assists in the development of child care regulations and implementation of training and technical assistance materials.

• Conducts unannounced, complaint investigations by regions.
• Writes reports and enters data into the new, modern licensing system.
• Investigates allegations of unlicensed child care and prepares written reports.
• Liaises with Institutional Abuse Unit, law enforcement, and DAG’s office when warranted.
• Has superior knowledge of all regulations to determine if serious non-compliance has occurred. Determines course of correction.
• Utilizes advanced interviewing and conflict management skills, including strong communication, active listening, and situational de-escalation to resolve conflict.
• Keeps other specialists and supervisors informed of complaint outcomes, as appropriate, and recommends enforcement action when warranted.

• Reviews, tracks, and maintains eligibility for all persons fingerprinted and linked to licensed child care providers. Reviews and monitors the comprehensive background check status of all staff members, adult household members, and child care substitutes.
• Assists the Criminal History Unit with monitoring of fingerprinted background check needs and conducts regular follow up on outstanding out-of-state background clearances.

• Manages the progressive discipline and administrative action processes of licensed child care facilities, which includes providing timely administrative complaint notifications to providers, keeping the information system current throughout the administrative action process, and completing each action accurately and in a timely manner.
• Utilizes effective conflict management skills including strong communication, active listening, and situational de-escalation to resolve conflict in an effective manner.
• Conducts on-site unannounced annual monitoring visits and off-site administrative reviews of licensed child care facilities to determine compliance with applicable DELACARE Regulations, developing corrective action plans, confirming correction of non-compliances cited, and recommending enforcement actions, including license suspension, when warranted.
• Conducts unannounced follow up visits when needed to ensure compliance and effective implementation of corrective actions, bi-monthly enforcement visits, and Agreements of Understanding compliance visits to determine regulation compliance and provide technical assistance as needed.
• Conducts on-site pre-licensing visits for applicants to ensure regulation compliance in the prospective child care location and continues increased monitoring during the first year of licensure to ensure regulation compliance and provide technical assistance.
• Adapt/interpret regulations to accommodate the new needs and realities of public and private school education.
• Analyze influx of new waivers/variance requests to accommodate individual public and private school programs to…