Some Arizona Family Childcare Home Providers Did Not Always Comply With State Health and Safety Certification Requirements

The Arizona Department of Economic Security (State agency) conducted the required inspections at all of the 20 certified family childcare home providers (providers) that we reviewed; however, this onsite monitoring did not ensure that providers that received Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) funds complied with State certification requirements related to the health and safety of children. We determined that each of the 20 providers did not comply with 1 or more State requirements to ensure the health and safety of children. Specifically, all 20 providers did not comply with requirements related to the physical conditions of family homes, 13 providers did not comply with supervision requirements, and 4 providers did not comply with transportation requirements. In addition, the State agency did not perform required criminal records and child abuse registry checks for five providers.

We recommended that the State agency (1) ensure through effective monitoring that providers comply with all health and safety requirements, (2) develop and implement written policies and procedures requiring that certification specialists regularly attend training related to health and safety and that providers be rotated regularly among certification specialists, (3) strengthen its existing policies and procedures to effectively identify when fingerprint clearance cards have been suspended or revoked, and (4) perform criminal records and child abuse registry checks in compliance with CCDF plan requirements. The State agency concurred with our first and third recommendations and partially concurred with our second and fourth recommendations.