The goal of Differential Licensing is to monitor and review programs based on a child care provider's compliance history and safety risk level, and to conduct annual licensing visits to all licensed programs.
How does it work?
Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) licensors review providers' licensing information including any history of non-compliances and investigations to determine whether a program is eligible for a more focused monitoring visit.
- If a program is eligible, the licensor will conduct an abbreviated visit and review key indicators of risk of harm to children
- If a program is ineligible, the licensor will conduct a comprehensive visit or a targeted look at areas of non-compliance
Licensing visit lifecycle
The Differential Licensing Lifecycle refers to the sequence of visits conducted by licensors for providers.
The Differential Licensing Lifecycle for Group and School-Aged Child Care programs consists of two consecutive annual monitoring visits followed by an enhanced monitoring visit in the third year of the licensing cycle. The enhanced monitoring visit is followed by two more annual monitoring visits and then the cycle ends in year 6 with a full licensing review. Renewal of a provider’s license will continue to occur every two years.
The Differential Licensing Lifecycle results in four visit types:
- Pre-licensing Visit: This is the first licensing visit for new applicants. The Pre-Licensing Visit is announced and involves a comprehensive review of regulations.
- Provisional License (90 day) Monitoring Visit: This visit is conducted after the first provisional license is issued. The Provisional License Monitoring Visit is unannounced and involves a comprehensive review of regulations.
- Monitoring Visit: This visit is conducted annually between renewal cycles once the program has a full two-year license. The Monitoring Visit is unannounced and it may involve a very focused or more comprehensive review of EEC's regulations depending on the program's licensing history and compliance status.
- Renewal Monitoring Visit: This visit may be conducted up to four months prior to a license expiration. The Renewal Monitoring Visit is unannounced, and it may involve a very focused or more comprehensive review of EEC's regulations depending on the program's licensing history and compliance status. A full review of the regulations will occur at least once every six years even for providers in good standing who are eligible for more focused visits.
During Differential Licensing visits, the EEC licensor may use one of the following visit tools:
- Monitoring Tool: This tool uses key indicators to determine a program's risk of harm to a child.*
- Enhanced Monitoring Tool: This tool uses key indicators to determine a program's risk of harm to a child, and also involves a review of the program's administration.*
- Pre-Licensing and Full Licensing Visit Tools: These tools focus on the full set of EEC's licensing regulations.
*This tool also includes a review of items that are randomly generated by EEC's licensing data system.
When an EEC licensor uses either the Monitoring Tool or Enhanced Monitoring Tool, the program will receive a visit summary that contains a review of every item assessed by the licensor.