To ensure basic health and safety standards are met, annual, unannounced inspections are conducted by Child Care Licensing Specialists and Department of Public Safety Inspectors.

• Program Inspections – Annual unannounced monitoring visit to ensure ratios, record keeping, program standards, etc. are met for licensed programs and to ensure the home environment for a registered family child care program meets minimum standards.
• Facility Safety Inspection – Annual unannounced monitoring visit to ensure compliance with fire and life safety and environmental health standards for licensed child and school-age care programs.
• Informal/In-Home Inspections – Annual announced monitoring visit to ensure federal health and safety standards are met in order to receive child care assistance payments for care of one family’s child(ren).

The Office of Licensing and Accreditation also monitors programs when a concern of non-compliance is reported. Following an inspection or monitoring visit, a compliance plan, corrective action plan or stipulation consent agreement is generated which details any issues of non-compliance identified. All actions provide formal notification to the Provider outlining the issues of non-compliance, which require correction and a timeframe in which correction is expected. Plans may show a pending status indicating the program is working to correct the cited issue/s. Multiple plans can be issued for varying issues of non-compliance for different periods of time. All plans are available for public viewing. Three years of inspections, compliance plans, corrective action plans and stipulation agreements are available for viewing if the Provider has been registered or licensed for that length of time. A suspension may be temporarily implemented if the Department determines the health, safety or welfare of the children served by the provider are in imminent danger or the program is substantially out of compliance with licensing standards