Getting a childcare establishment licence

It is the licensing procedure set by Regulation No. 8860, adopted under Act 173-2016 — the Act for the Licensing of Child Care, Development and Learning Establishments. The regulation applies to every natural or legal person intending to operate or operating a public or private establishment, for profit or not, for the purpose of offering care services or a programme of care, development and learning activities to children, during part or all of the twenty-four hours of the day. Its requirements are minimum criteria: the regulation expressly says they do not limit an operator’s capacity to implement higher ones.

A licence is needed by every natural or legal person, private or public — including any department, division, board, agency or instrumentality, or other political subdivision of the State — wishing to operate or maintain a care, development and learning establishment. The only exception the regulation writes is Act 173-2016’s own: someone caring for one or two children, or caring for children related to them by blood or affinity to the third degree, up to a maximum of five related children in their care.

• Requesting and receiving an orientation on Act 173-2016 and the Regulation at the Licensing Office for the area where you will offer the service, before applying.Verified against the official source
• Filing the application at least sixty (60) calendar days before the projected start of operation.Verified against the official source
• Presenting, within those sixty days, evidence of having taken an institutional-maltreatment orientation from ADFAN’s Institutional Child Maltreatment and Neglect Unit at the corresponding Regional Office.Verified against the official source
• Requesting renewal sixty (60) calendar days before the licence expires.Verified against the official source
• Notifying the Licensing Office thirty (30) days before starting any expansion or modification of the premises, and presenting the applicable regulatory-agency certifications before using it.Verified against the official source

• A health certificate, annually. If issued by a private doctor it will include V.D.R.L. lab results and a tuberculin test or chest X-rays.
• A negative Police criminal-record certificate, to be presented at least every six (6) months; if the person lived outside Puerto Rico, a certification from each state or territory where they lived in the last five (5) years.
• A certification from the Integrated Credentials and Criminal History System (SICHDe), under Act 300-1999.
• A negative certification from the Registry of Persons Convicted of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse, annually, and from ADFAN’s Central Registry on maltreatment and neglect, annually.
• A negative ASUME certification, annually; a tax-filing certification — foster and care homes also submit a copy of the return, and persons exempt a Treasury certification — and a Nutrition Assistance Programme participation certification, annually.
• A current First Aid and CPR course, evidence of academic preparation and training, and written authorisation for conduct to be investigated.
• Three personal reference letters with the signer’s name, address and telephone: one from the last job and two from neighbours with no blood or affinity ties. This requirement applies only to foster and care homes.

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   Step 1: Before applying: the orientation

   The regulation opens with a duty that precedes the application. Every natural or legal person, public or private, for profit or not, intending to operate an establishment shall request and receive an orientation on Act 173-2016 and the Regulation at the Department’s Licensing Office for the area where they have decided to offer the service. It is not one office for the whole island: it is the one for your area.

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   Step 2: Sixty days before opening

   The application is filed at the Licensing Office with all the regulation’s requirements and at least sixty calendar days before the projected start of operation. Within those same sixty days you must present evidence of having taken an institutional-maltreatment orientation, offered by the Administration for Families and Children through the Institutional Child Maltreatment and Neglect Unit at the corresponding Regional Office. They are two different orientations: the licensing one and the institutional-maltreatment one.

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   Step 3: The background investigation

   Before issuing or renewing, the Department verifies the credentials and criminal history of everyone interested in caring or caring for children, of full- and part-time employees, of volunteers, and of owners, proprietors, administrators, operators, directors or persons in charge. Act 300-1999 requires it: nobody providing child care services may do so without first obtaining a SICHDe certification stating they do not appear in the Registry of Persons Convicted of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse, nor in the Criminal Justice Information System as convicted of a violent sexual offence, child abuse, or the offences listed in Article 4 of that act. Refusing consent to the check is sufficient grounds for the Department to bar the grant or renewal of the licence. And intentionally falsifying any information required for the check is a crime.

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   Step 4: The FBI fingerprints: who and who not

   Here is a distinction that saves time and money. The IAFIS fingerprint verification from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, granted by the Intelligence Support Center, applies only to establishments receiving federal funding, such as those serving under Child Care and ADFAN or any other Department programme requiring it. The regulation expressly exempts from that requirement the care, development and learning centres and the private care homes that do not benefit from federal funds.

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   Step 5: And the traffic detail

   For background-check purposes, the regulation clarifies that Vehicle and Traffic Act infractions are not considered a crime, except gross and reckless negligence in driving a motor vehicle. A traffic ticket does not disqualify; a conviction for gross and reckless negligence is another matter.

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   Step 6: The licence: two years, visible and non-transferable

   Every establishment shall display its licence in a place visible to the public and the licence is valid for two years. It is not transferable: it is granted only for the premises and the natural or legal person named in the application, and may not be transferred, assigned, conveyed, reassigned or alienated. Further, the sale, assignment, lease or transfer — for consideration or free — of the establishment or the property where it sits to anyone lacking a Department eligibility certification is prohibited; doing so brings automatic cancellation of the current licence.

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   Step 7: Renewal and the CDA

   Renewal is the operator’s responsibility and is requested sixty calendar days before the licence expires, with all requirements. The Department grants renewal for two years and must decide within no more than thirty days of the request. At renewal a training requirement appears that is worth planning ahead for: care, development and learning centres must present evidence that all direct-service staff have completed the current CDA — Child Development Associate — certification or renewal relevant to the level served. Care homes, foster homes, group homes and institutions instead comply with the Training Course. Both the CDA and the Course must be given by entities duly authorised by the Department.

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   Step 8: If you are expanding or remodelling

   Every expansion or modification of the premises in a licensed establishment is notified to the Licensing Office thirty days before construction starts, and before using the space the applicable regulatory-agency certifications must be presented. After the licence is granted, any change of use of internal areas requires Department authorisation. And where remodelling may endanger the health, privacy or safety of residents, participants, employees or visitors, a temporary service suspension is required, for a term not exceeding one hundred eighty calendar days.

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   Step 9: What happens if you are denied

   The application may be denied for failure to meet one or more of the requirements of Act 173-2016 and the regulation, and in that case the person has a right to appeal under Section 9.6 of the regulation itself. Further, if the Health Department, the Police or the Justice Department investigation produces information leading to rejection of the application or to the separation of an employee, administrator, operator or custodian, the Department will notify the affected person in writing of the information gathered and the action it proposes to take, within no more than thirty days of that investigation concluding. The person may object to the correctness, deficiency or legality of the information gathered.

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    Step 10: And which regulations stopped applying

    Worth knowing because the old ones still circulate online: this regulation’s derogatory clause repeals Regulation 6474 on licensing and supervision of care homes, Regulation 6475 on group homes and institutions, and Regulation 6476 on foster homes, all three approved on 3 June 2002. Also repealed is the memorandum of 28 July 2005 relating to Regulation 4758. If someone cites you requirements from 6474, they are repealed.

At the Department of the Family’s Licensing Office for the area where you will offer the service: that is where the prior orientation is requested and where the application is filed. The institutional-maltreatment orientation is given by ADFAN’s Institutional Child Maltreatment and Neglect Unit at the corresponding Regional Office. The regulation also obliges the Department to keep a web-accessible registry of decisions on establishments’ licence status, so parents and citizens can verify compliance.

• Filing the application less than sixty calendar days before the projected opening date.
• Taking only the licensing orientation and forgetting ADFAN’s institutional-maltreatment one.
• Buying a childcare business believing the licence comes with it: it does not transfer and an improper sale cancels it.
• Leaving the CDA certification to renewal day instead of planning it ahead.
• Asking for FBI fingerprints at a private centre without federal funds, which the regulation exempts.
• Renewing the criminal-record certificate once a year: it must be presented at least every six months.
• Starting an expansion without notifying the Licensing Office thirty days ahead.
• Relying on Regulation 6474 of 2002, which this regulation repealed.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Administración para el Cuidado y Desarrollo Integral de la Niñez (ACUDEN)

  ACUDEN

  docs.pr.gov

• Administration for the Integral Care and Development of Childhood

  acuden

  www.acuden.pr.gov