The 2020-21 Spending Plan

Human Services

Community Care Licensing

The Community Care Licensing Division (CCL or CCLD) develops and enforces regulations designed to protect the health and safety of individuals in 24-hour residential care facilities and day care programs. CCL’s primary roles and responsibilities include preventing noncompliance by conducting facility visits and background checks and providing technical assistance to licensees, and enforcing rules and regulations when licensees are found to be out of compliance. In 2019, CCL monitored roughly 71,000 licensed facilities, which include child care, children’s residential, and adult and senior care facilities.

New Programs Funded in 2020-21

Funding for New Data Management System. The spending plan includes $28.7 million General Fund to implement a new data management system for CCL. This amount includes funds for procuring and customizing the system, supporting organizational change management, integrating systems, and other activities over the next three years beginning in 2020-21. The new data system is intended to replace multiple legacy systems currently used by CCL licensing program analysts and other staff.

COVID-19 Response

Allocation for Adult and Senior Care Temporary Relocations Using 2019-20 Funds. In the final quarter of 2019-20, the state dedicated $41 million General Fund in emergency coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response funding for the Department of Social Services (DSS) to temporarily relocate residents in CCL-licensed adult and senior care facilities as needed for quarantine and isolation. The 2020-21 spending plan does not include additional funding for this initiative.

Ongoing Waivers in Response to COVID-19. The Governor’s March 2020 Emergency Proclamation allows DSS to waive code provisions and regulations related to interim licensing standards and other provisions related to licensed facilities. Accordingly, since March, DSS has authorized various waivers for its licensees. Some waivers vary by facility type, but broadly waiver categories include:

• Suspension of Annual Licensing Visits. During the state of emergency, CCL has suspended regular in-person licensing inspection visits. Instead, local CCL offices are focusing on providing technical assistance and guidance to licensees to help them respond to COVID-19, in coordination with public health officials. CCL continues to respond to complaints.

• Visitation. Within adult and senior care facilities and children’s residential facilities, CCL has directed licensees to limit visitation for nonessential individuals to help mitigate residents’ and staffs’ possible exposure to COVID-19.

• Capacity. CCL has waived capacity and bedroom sharing requirements to allow licensees to quarantine and isolate residents as necessary for prevention, containment, and mitigation measures.

• Staffing Ratios. CCL has waived staffing ratios within residential facilities to allow licensees to safely facilitate prevention, containment, and mitigation measures. (Previously, staffing ratio waivers were also in place for child care facilities. Those waivers ended in July, although they continue to be permitted on a case-by-case basis.)

• Personnel Requirements and Background Checks. To help licensees address staffing shortages and—in some cases—elevated staffing needs, CCL has waived some requirements for staff background checks and other requirements, such as tuberculosis testing, prior to beginning employment at a licensed facility.

• Licensing Fees. For licensees experiencing economic hardship due to COVID-19, CCL is allowing requests to waive annual licensing fees.

• “Pop-Up” Child Care Facilities. CCL implemented a statewide waiver in March 2020 to allow temporary employer-sponsored child care facilities, or pop-up facilities, for employers whose essential workers may experience lack of access to child care. (At the time of publication, nearly one-third of child care slots statewide were impacted by facility closures.) Prior to beginning operation, employers must contact their local CCL office.