Connecticut Family Day Care Home Providers Did Not Always Comply With State Health and Safety Licensing Requirements

Although the Connecticut Department of Social Services (State agency) conducted the required inspections at all of the 20 providers that we reviewed, this onsite monitoring did not ensure that providers that received CCDF funds complied with State licensing requirements related to the health and safety of children. We determined that all 20 of the providers we reviewed did not comply with 1 or more State licensing requirements to ensure the health and safety of children. Specifically, we found that 19 of the 20 providers did not always comply with 1 or more requirements related to the physical conditions of the family homes, and 8 of the providers did not comply with required criminal records and protective services checks. Two of the providers voluntarily surrendered their licenses after our review of their compliance with State licensing regulations.

We recommended that the State agency work with the State licensing agency to (1) ensure through more frequent onsite monitoring that providers comply with health and safety regulations, (2) develop a mandatory training program to improve provider compliance with health and safety regulations, and (3) further define "household member" for the purposes of criminal record and protective services check requirements by adding examples of situations when it would be necessary for a provider to contact the State licensing agency and obtain the required checks. The State agency concurred with our findings and explained its plans for addressing our recommendations.