AN ACT CONCERNING THE LICENSURE OF CHILD DAY CARE FACILITIES AND YOUTH CAMPS.

AN ACT CONCERNING THE LICENSURE OF CHILD DAY CARE FACILITIES AND YOUTH CAMPS.

This bill expands the types of incidents of child abuse and neglect that the Department of Children and Families (DCF) must report to the Public Health Department (DPH) when they involve certain DPH-licensed facilities. It broadens DCF's reporting requirement to include (1) all records of reports of abuse and neglect, rather than all information on substantiated reports, and (2) incidents in youth camps, as well as day care facilities. It revises the information DPH maintains on its list of abuse and neglect at these facilities and the kind of information it can disclose from that list.

The bill requires DCF and DPH jointly to investigate reports of abuse and neglect occurring at any day care facility or youth camp. The departments must share all information, records, and reports gathered as part of the investigation.

The bill specifies what types of private school summer education programs are exempt from licensing as a youth camp and permits DPH to order a camp to cease specific activities when people's health, safety, or welfare are threatened.

Finally, the bill provides that, in order for DPH to decide on a new day care license application at a previously licensed location that a prior licensee has vacated, the landlord must establish to DPH's satisfaction that the previous licensee has no legal right or interest to the premises.

*Senate Amendment “A” specifies that DCF must provide reports of suspected abuse or neglect and records of administrative hearings, makes conforming changes, and adds the provision on relicensing vacated day care premises.

The bill revises the kind of information DCF must report to DPH about child abuse and neglect. Under current law, when DCF substantiates that abuse or neglect occurred in a day care center, group day care home, or family day care home, it must notify DPH of all information about the incident. The bill, instead, requires DCF to provide all records concerning reports and investigations of suspected abuse or neglect, including records of any administrative hearings it holds, (1) occurring in one of these facilities or in a DPH-licensed youth camp or (2) involving a facility's license holder, any facility staff, or any household member of a family day care home, regardless of where the abuse or neglect occurred. The law governing DCF record confidentiality defines a record as information the department creates or obtains in connection with its child protection activities or activities related to a child in its custody, including information in DCF's child abuse registry. Records DCF does not create can be disclosed only in limited circumstances (CGS § 17a-28).

The bill supersedes existing laws that govern DCF reports about allegations of incidents in state-licensed facilities that care for children, such as day care facilities. These require DCF, before notifying the agency and providing investigative records, to (1) first investigate the allegations and find reasonable cause to believe abuse or neglect occurred and (2) exhaust or waive all administrative appeals available to the person suspected of the abuse, unless the act meets certain criteria (CGS §§ 17a-101j(b) and 17a-101g(c)).

The bill allows any child abuse or neglect record DCF provides to DPH to be used in an administrative hearing or court proceeding related to a facility's license. It requires these records to be kept confidential, except in a contested case (a proceeding in which an agency determines a party's rights, duties, or privileges) where the law allows parties to inspect and copy records. The records are not subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

Current law requires DPH to keep a list of (1) complaints it substantiated about day care facilities during the prior three years and (2) the substantiated child abuse and neglect reports DCF sends it. The bill, instead, requires DPH to keep a list of violations (presumably regulatory violations) it substantiates over that period concerning day care facilities and youth camps. As under current law, DPH must disclose information on this list, with certain exceptions, upon request. Information identifying children or their family members continues to be confidential. But the bill permits DPH to disclose information that identifies facility staff and employees and people who live in a family day care home. This information is confidential under current law.

The bill allows DPH to include on this list and disclose information about specific DCF findings and notices of abuse and neglect. It can list and disclose:

1. substantiated findings that DCF includes on its child abuse and neglect registry of abuse or neglect occurring in a covered facility or being committed by the facility license holder, any facility staff member, or anyone living in a family day care home;

2. DCF reports of suspected abuse or neglect at a facility that resulted in or involved (a) a child's death, (b) serious physical harm or the risk of serious physical injury or emotional harm to a child, (c) child sexual abuse, (d) a person's arrest for child abuse or neglect, or (e) DCF filing a petition to commit a child to its care or terminate a parent's rights to the child. If DCF subsequently informs DPH that its investigation did not substantiate this abuse or neglect or that its finding was reversed after an appeal, DPH must immediately remove the information from its list and stop disclosing the information.

The bill specifies that to be exempt from DPH youth camp licensure requirements, summer educational programs must be operated by a public or private school that (1) is approved by the State Board of Education (SBE) and accredited by an SBE-approved agency, and (2) files required attendance reports with the State Education Department.

The bill permits DPH to issue a cease and desist order limiting a youth camp's license and halting a specific activity. It can do so if it determines a camper's or staff member's health, safety, or welfare requires immediate emergency action. As soon as it receives such an order, the camp must stop the activity and notify all parents and staff that the activity is halted until DPH dissolves the order. DPH must hold a hearing on the issue within 10 days of issuing the order.

With certain exceptions, records DCF maintains are confidential and may not be disclosed without the consent of the person named in the record. One of those exceptions allows DCF to provide copies of records to DPH for its use in determining a person's suitability for a license to care for children (17a-28(f)).

sHB 6403 (File 490) authorizes the DCF commissioner to refuse to disclose any record that she currently must disclose. It also makes some disclosures that are mandatory under current law discretionary and others that are currently discretionary, mandatory. The bill also makes changes in current disclosure procedures that limit the use recipients can make of disclosed records.

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(03/04/2009)

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(04/01/2009)

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(04/29/2009)

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(05/27/2009)