Child Care Licensing, a subdivision of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services under the auspices of Texas Health and Human Services, is the board that manages the granting of and maintenance of licenses to perform child care services in the State of Texas. As such, it is charged both with regulating all operations providing child care services within the state, and with all placing of children within the state. It oversees permitting and monitoring of these operations, with the goal of ensuring they comply with all state-level licensing rules, laws, and standards.
As such, any complaints made against a child care operation such as a daycare or a site providing residential child care services—including for violations of “minimum standards,” violations of licensing law, or, further, for neglect or abuse—is Child Care Licensing’s to investigate. The bar is low for launching an investigation into the validity of these types of allegations, because the safety of Texas’s children, who are among our most vulnerable citizens, is considered of paramount importance.
As soon as a complaint is brought to a childcare operation’s attention, the operation has a duty to inform all parties that might be affected by the complaint, if it is true, of the action being taken against it. This includes the parents (or guardians or managing conservators) of the children with whose care the operation has been charged. Naturally, this creates a great deal of concern among those notified and may result in an immediate loss of clientele.
Further, Child Care Licensing’s authority to take disciplinary action against the operations it licenses is practically absolute. The actions the agency takes range from simply making corrective actions, such as recommendations with the aim of bringing the operation into compliance with minimum standards, to disciplinary actions like fully revoking a license to provide child care services. The severity of the proposed (or imposed) action will depend on the determined severity of the violation(s) of which a child care operation is accused, and can mean the loss of livelihood of a child care provider.
Because the assumptions made in these cases is weighted so greatly in favor of the complaint over the interests of the child care service operator, any defense against the complaints requires swift involvement from an experienced license defense attorney.
Our law firm helps child care operations that are falsely accused to keep their licenses when those licenses are under attack by Child Care Licensing.
BERTOLINO LLP proudly represents licensed childcare providers across the entire State of Texas. To best serve our clients we have offices in Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. If you are facing a complaint before Child Care Licensing, contact us today or call (512) 476-5757 and schedule a case evaluation.
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