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Frequently Asked Questions About Texas Child CareQ. What is the Difference between center-based care and home-based care? A. Center based care is day care provided for 13 or more children
for less than 24 hours/day. Home based care is day care provided
for no more than 12 children for less than 24 hours/day in the caregiver's
residence. Q. What kinds of operations are considered center-based? A. Operations with 13 or more children in care for less than 24
hours/day are considered center based. Q. What kind of homes are considered
home-based? Q. Explain the difference between
residential care and registered child care homes? Q. What is a Small Employer-based Child Care operation? A. A Small Employer-based Child Care operation is a non-licensed child-care center, not routinely inspected by the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services; and not required to meet minimum health and safety standards for child care operations. Small Employer-based Child Care operations are required to maintain a child-to-caregiver ratio of 1:4; have no more than 12 children (age 14 or younger) in care at any time; meet fire safety and sanitation standards in its political subdivision; conduct background checks on caregivers; ensure caregivers meet certain minimum qualifications; and ensure that parents work in the immediate vicinity and are only away from the vicinity for limited periods. DFPS will investigate any allegations of child abuse or neglect. Q. What kinds of services are
included in "primary medical needs care"? Q. What does the term "operation type" mean? A. Operation type refers to the type of permit that has been issued to the person or organization. Q. What does it mean if an operation or home is "accredited"? A. An operation or home is accredited when it elects to follow higher standards established by an accrediting organization. These standards are higher than the required minimum standards established by DFPS Licensing division. Q. Is it possible to get a list of approved accreditation organizations from the website? A. No. Q. What is a Child-Placing Agency (CPA)? A. A person, including an organization other than the biological parents or guardian of a child, who plans for the placement of or places a child in a child-care operation, agency foster home, agency foster group home, or adoptive home. A child-placing agency does not provide direct care for children. A CPA verifies its foster homes and/or approves adoptive homes. The agency is responsible for regulating its homes for compliance with minimum standards. Licensing inspects the CPA to ensure the CPA is meeting minimum standards. A. Issuance is a process that takes place when the licensing division determines that an operation or home has met minimum standards and may operate as a child-care center, home, or child-placing agency. A permit (license, registration, certificate, or listing) is granted allowing the operation or home to legally care for children. Q. What does it mean for an operation or home to have a "condition" on their license (permit)? A. When an operation or home has a "condition", it means a requirement is imposed on the license or registration (permit) of the child-care operation or family home to perform or refrain from some act. Q. What does it mean for an operation or home to have a "restriction" on their license (permit)? A. When an operation or home has a "restriction", it means a limitation is placed on the license (permit) establishing capacity, ages of children in care, times of operation, or a limitation placed by fire or health departments. Q. What is the difference between "child-care services" and "treatment services"? A. Child-care services are general care for children who are able to function within society and do not require highly specialized care programs. Treatment services includes specialized services for emotional disorders, mental retardation, pervasive development disorders or primary medical needs. Children may receive additional programmatic services such as transitional living services for older children or assessment services for children who are coming into residential child care for the first time. Q. What is an investigation and how is it initiated? A. An investigation is a process in which CCL staff takes steps and gather facts in response to receiving a report to licensing. When a report is received from someone alleging a violation, an investigation is conducted to determine the validity of the allegations and to ensure the protection of children in care. When a report is received as a self-report from an operation or home an investigation is conducted to determine that the operation handled the incident in compliance with regulations that there is no future risk to children in care. An investigation may or may not require an inspection but all reports have some degree of investigation. Q. What is "subsidized child care"? A. Subsidized child care are programs that pay all or part of a child's care based on eligibility guidelines. Subsidy programs in Texas are not regulated by Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Q. What is the difference between a "Monitoring Inspection", an "Assessment", a "Report", and a "Self-Reported Incident"? A. All operations are inspected on a regular basis for routine monitoring. A monitoring inspection is a routine on-site observation conducted by licensing staff at the child care operation to assess compliance with minimum standards, law and rules. Most are unannounced. An assessment denotes an operation being found in violation of regulations without an on site inspection of the child-care operation. Compliance is assessed by reviews of paperwork or other materials to assess compliance. A report is an investigation of complaints of possible risk to children in care received by licensing staff from members of the public, including parents. Self_reported Incidents are investigations of incidens reported by the child care operator. An investigation may involve an inpsection but these inspections are not routine and are conducted as a result of a report to licensing. Both inspections and reports may result in an operation being found in violation of regulations. All operations are inspected on a regular basis for routine monitoring. An investigation may involve an inspection but these inspections are not routine and are conducted as a result of a report to licensing. Both inspections and reports may result in an operation being found in violation of regulations. A. A report is information received by licensing staff of possible risk to children in care. A report may be a self-report from an operation informing licensing staff of the occurrence of a serious incident at the operation. A report may also come from anyone alleging a violation of standards, law or abuse and neglect. Regardless of the source, all information is treated as a report and receives some level of investigation. A. A "self-report" is an account from an operation of a serious incident that occurred at the operation or home. All regulated operations are required to make reports to licensing about certain types of incidents such as serious illness or injury to a child, criminal activity, unsafe building, grounds or equipment and other incidents that could pose a risk to children in care. Licensing staff are required to investigate all self-reports of serious incidents. A. A deficiency, also referred to as a violation, is any failure to comply with a minimum standard, rule, law, or specific term of a permit, or condition of evaluation, probation, or suspension regulated by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Q. What should I do if an operation or home has deficiencies? A. Deficiencies may be cited for a variety of reasons. You should carefully evaluate the deficiencies for the operation you are interested in. If you have you concerns or questions about a deficiency, share these with the director/administrator or provider. Find out what the operation did to correct the deficiency and how the operation plans to prevent the deficiency from re- occurring. Q. Should I be concerned that an operation or home has "deficiencies"? A. You should carefully evaluate the deficiencies for the operation you are interested in. The following are starting points to help in the evaluation: (1) Which deficiency was cited? Details of the standard requirements and deficiencies cited can be found on the DFPS website. (2) What weight was assigned to the deficiency? A weight listed as high presents a greater risk to children than a weight listed as low. (3) Have deficiencies been repeated in the last two years? This information is available on the DFPS website. (4) How long did it take the operation to come into compliance? “Comply by” dates for each deficiency can be found on the DFPS website. (5) How often is the operation inspected? Monitoring frequencies will fluctuate, depending on the type of permit and an operation’s ability to comply with the Licensing standards, rules, and law. Q. What are the types of child day-care operations? A. Listed Family Home: A caregiver provides care in her own home for three or fewer children unrelated to the caregiver, birth through 13 years old, for at least four hours a day, three or more days a week, and more than nine consecutive weeks. The total number of children in care, including children related to the caregiver, may not exceed 12. Registered Child-Care Home: A caregiver provides regular care in her own home for not more than six children from birth through 13 years old, and may provide care after school hours for not more than six additional elementary school children. The total number of children in care at any given time, including the children related to the caregiver, must not exceed 12. Licensed Child-Care Home: The caregiver provides care in her own home for children from birth through 13 years old. The total number of children in care varies with the ages of the children, but the total number of children in care at any given time, including the children related to the caregiver, must not exceed 12. Licensed Child-Care Center: An operation providing care for seven or more children under 14 years old for less than 24 hours per day at a location other than the permit holder's home A. A program that offers care for children on an as needed basis. Q. What are the types of Residential Child-care operations? A. Foster Family Home (Independent): An operation that provides care for six or fewer children up to the age of 18 years for 24 hours a day. Foster Group Home (Independent): An operation that provides care for seven to twelve children up to the age of 18 years for 24 hours a day. Residential Treatment Center: An operation that provides care and treatment for 13 or more emotionally disturbed children for 24 hours a day. General Residential Operation:An operation that exclusively provides care and treatment services for emotional disorders for 13 or more children up to the age of 18 years for 24 hours a day. Maternity Home: An operation that provides care for four or more minor and/or adult women and her children during pregnancy and/or during the six-week postpartum period for 24 hours a day. Child-Placing Agency (CPA): A person, agency, or organization other than a parent who places or plans for the placement of a child in an adoptive home or other residential care setting. Q. What are the types of homes verified by a Child-Placing Agency? A. The types of homes verified by a Child-Placing Agency are foster family homes and foster group homes.Child-Placing Agencies also approve adoptive homes. Q. What is a CPA foster family home? A. CPA Foster Family Home: An operation that provides care for six or fewer children for 24 hours a day under the regulation of a child-placing agency. Q. What is a CPA foster group home? A. CPA Foster Group Home: An operation that provides care for seven to 12 children for 24 hours a day under the regulation of a child-placing agency. Q. What is a CPA adoptive home? A. CPA Adoptive Home: A home approved by a CPA to accept adoptive placements. Q. What does "Special Skills" mean? A. A program that teaches a talent, ability, expertise, or proficiency. The program is not a part of a school, child day-care or after-school day care operation, and each child attends less than two hours a day. A. An inspection is a physical presence of licensing staff at a child-care operation or family home to determine an operation or home's compliance with the child-care licensing standards, rules and the law. Q. How are inspections conducted? A. Inspections are conducted routinely by Licensing staff on licensed, certified and registered operations. Inspectors monitor compliance with standards, the law and the rules. Licensed and certified operations must have at least one annual unannounced inspection. Registered child care homes must have at least one unannounced inspection every two years. Inspections may be more frequent than the minimum required based upon an operation's ability to comply with standard requirements. Listed Family Homes are inspected only if there is a report of abuse/neglect or if operating illegally. Agency homes are currently inspected on a random basis and when there is a report of abuse/neglect. After the inspection a written report is given to the operation and/or any deficiencies must be discussed with the person in charge. This report is posted and available for review at the operation. If an operator disagrees with a deficiency, the operator may request an administrative review. Follow-ups done by Licensing staff ensure the corrections are made. If deficiencies are of such a serious nature that the health and safety of the children is threatened, corrective actions such as evaluation, probation, suspension or revocation of the certificate, license or registration may be warranted. A. An assessment is the result of an operation being found in violation of regulations without Licensing performing an on site inspection. Q. How frequently are inspections conducted? A. The frequency of inspections will fluctuate, depending on the type of permit and an operation’s ability to comply with the Licensing standards, rules, and law. Licensing staff inspect new operations frequently in order to offer technical assistance and establish a record of compliance with the standards, rules, and law. Once a record of compliance is established, an operation’s ability to remain in compliance determines how frequently an operation may be inspected. When operations have serious deficiencies or a significant number of deficiencies, repeat deficiencies, or fail to make corrections timely, they are inspected more frequently by licensing staff, to monitor the level of risk to children. Q. What is a standard "weight"? A. Weights of high, medium high, medium, medium low, and low, are assigned to individual standards based on the risk a standard violation presents to children. A weight listed as high presents a greater risk to children than a weight listed as low. Assigning weights to minimum standards helps facilitate a clear and common understanding among providers, consumers and licensing staff of the risk that any given standard deficiency poses to children. Weighted standards are not intended to result in a ranking of operations; weights are not assigned to an individual operation, inspection, or circumstance. Q. What is a "corrective action"? A. Corrective actions are steps that Licensing may impose upon an operation or home to assist it in becoming compliant with standards rules and laws. These actions are imposed when an operation or home has repeated deficiencies with standards that do not endanger the health and safety of children. Licensing staff may place the operation or home on evaluation or probation rather than revoking the licensing permit... Q. What does it mean if an operation is on evaluation or probation? A. Evaluation is a closer than routine period of monitoring imposed on an operation or home when deficiencies present a lower risk to children and the operation or home has not been able to come into compliance. The length of time for evaluation is not less than 30 days or more than six months. Probation is an action imposed on an operation or home when a specific incident or pattern of deficiencies could lead to adverse action. The length of time for probation is not less than 30 days or more than one year. Q. How does a "corrective action" affect an operation or home? A. When an operation or home is placed on evaluation or probation, a Corrective Action Plan is developed to help the operation or home identify and correct the causes of the deficiencies. If the Plan is followed, it will help the operation or home come into compliance and avoid adverse action. Q. What is an "adverse action"? A. Adverse actions are steps that the Licensing division may take to force an operation or home to close. Adverse actions are taken when an operation or home has been cited for deficiencies that pose a risk to the health and safety of children, or if there are indications of a continued failure to comply with standards, rules or law. Adverse actions may be a denial of an application to operate, a revocation, a suspension or an adverse amendment with conditions to a license, registration, certification or listing. Q. How does an "adverse action" affect an operation or home? A. If adverse action is taken, the operation or home has a right to request an administrative review and a hearing. If the adverse action is upheld the operation or home must close. When they receive notice from the department that an adverse action will be taken the operation or home must notify each parent, guardian, or managing conservator of the children served in their operation or family home of the actions being taken. Parents, guardians, or managing conservators must also be notified if they are seeking to enroll children after the operation has received a revocation or suspension notice. Q. Can multiple zip codes be used to "Search for a Child-Care Operation"? A. You may provide more than one entry within Counties or Zip Code fields by separating the values with commas. For example: 77001,77002,77003,etc. However, you may only use multiple values for the "Search for a Child-Care Operation" search option. Q. How do I download a file containing child-care operation information?
Q. How to Search the Closed Foster Home Database A. This database includes information on foster homes that have been closed in Texas. Please note that the database includes foster homes that have closed and then re-opened. To search for a closed foster home, enter: Q. Why are open foster homes included in the closed foster home database? A. This database is mandated by law. The law does not distinguish between homes that closed never to re-open and homes that closed but re-opened later. All homes that have ever been closed, regardless of whether they opened again later, must be included in the database. Q. Why is some information missing from the database? A. Some information, such as the reason for relinquishment, was not collected by DFPS in the past. Therefore, this information is not available for many homes. As the database ages, DFPS will be able to collect more of this information and include it in the database. Q. Who can I contact if information in the database is incorrect? A. You can send an email to RCCLStandards@dfps.state.tx.us. Please include as much detailed information as possible. |
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