CR 26-005 Rule Text

State of Wisconsin

Department of Children and Families

Group Home Licensing

DCF 57

The statement of scope for this rule, SS 007-24, was approved by the Governor on January 18, 2024, published in Register 817A4 on January 22, 2024, and approved by Secretary Emilie Amundson on February 12, 2024.

The Wisconsin Department of Children and Families proposes an order to repeal ch. DCF 57 Appendices A to D; to amend s. DCF 57.62 (1) (b) and (6); and to repeal and recreate subch. I to VI of ch. DCF 57, relating to group home licensing.

Analysis Prepared by the Department of Children and Families

Statutory authority: Sections 48.625 (1g) and (1m) and 48.67 (1m) (intro.), (c) 2., and (e), Stats.

Statutes interpreted: Sections 48.383, 48.685, 48.625 (1), (1g), and (1m), 48.67 (1m) (intro.), (c) 2., and (e), Stats.

Explanation of Agency Authority

Section 48.625 (1), Stats, provides that any person who receives, with or without transfer of legal custody, 5 to 8 children, not including children who under sub. (1m) are not counted toward that number, to provide care and maintenance for those children shall obtain a license to operate a group home from the department. To obtain a license under this subsection to operate a group home, a person must meet the determination of need requirement under sub. (1g), meet the minimum requirements for a license established by the department under s. 48.67, meet the requirements specified in s. 48.685, and pay the license fee under sub. (2).

Section 48.625 (1g), Stats., provides that no person may apply for a license under sub. (1) to operate a new group home or for an amendment to a license under sub. (1) that would increase the bed capacity of an existing group home until the department has reviewed the need for the additional placement resources that would be made available by the issuance or amendment of the license and has certified in writing that a need exists for the proposed additional placement resources. The department shall promulgate rules to implement this subsection.

Section 48.625 (1m), Stats., provides that the department shall promulgate rules establishing standards for a group home for custodial parents and expectant parents. Those rules shall require such a group home to provide for the health, safety, and welfare of the child of any child custodial parent who has been placed in that group home and to have a policy governing visitation between such a child and the child’s noncustodial parent.

Section 48.67 (1m), Stats., provides that the department shall promulgate rules establishing minimum requirements for the issuance of licenses to, and establishing standards for the operation of group homes. Those rules shall be designed to protect and promote the health, safety, and welfare of the children in the care of all licensees. Those rules shall include rules that require all of the following:

• • (c) 2. That all staff members of a group home who provide care for the residents of the group home have current proficiency in the use of an automated external defibrillator, as defined in s. 256.15 (1) (cr), achieved through instruction provided by an individual, organization, or institution of higher education that is approved under s. 46.03 (38) to provide such instruction or through instruction obtained in connection with military service if the staff member or group home demonstrates to the satisfaction of the department that the instruction obtained in that connection is substantially equivalent to the instruction provided by a person approved under s. 46.03 (38).

• • (e) That all group homes at all times have a staff member designated as an out-of-home care provider for purposes of making decisions concerning the participation of a child placed in the group home in age or developmentally appropriate activities. Those rules shall also require an out-of-home care provider so designated to receive training in knowledge and skills relating to the use of the reasonable and prudent parent standard in making decisions concerning a child’s participation in age or developmentally appropriate activities. In addition, those rules shall require an out-of-home care provider so trained to make reasonable and prudent parenting decisions in accordance with the reasonable and prudent parent standard.

Summary of the Rule

The proposed rule makes the following changes to the requirements for a license to operate a group home under ch. DCF 57:

Insurance

• • Repeals the requirement for insurance coverage on the risks of the group home in the provision of services.

Licensee reporting requirements

• • Limits the requirement on reporting a medication administration error to only if the error results in an adverse reaction.

• • Revises reporting timeframe for the death of a resident from within 72 hours to within 24 hours.

• • Clarifies the requirement to notify the placing agency of a serious incident that involves a resident from as soon as possible to within 24 hours and adds a requirement to also notify the resident’s parent, guardian, legal custodian, or Indian custodian within 24 hours.

• • Creates a requirement that a licensee who knows or has reasonable cause to suspect that a resident has been abused or neglected shall immediately abide by the reporting requirement in s. 48.981 (2) and (3) (a), Stats.

• • Repeals the requirement to notify the department’s interstate compact office of each resident from out-of-state that is discharged from the group home.

• • Repeals the requirement to submit a copy of any resulting police report to the department if there is an accident involving a vehicle transporting a resident.

• • Repeals the requirement to notify the department of the admission of each serious juvenile offender placed in a group home in which that is not the primary client group served by the group home.

• • Revises notification requirement for the licensee of a corporation-operated group home from within 30 calendar days of any change in the executive responsible for the group home, the chairperson of the board, or in the corporate structure to at least 10 days prior to a change in the authorized representative who shall have responsibility for the administration of the group home.

Staff members

• • Revises the minimum age for a staff member from 21 years of age and 2 years older than the oldest resident when hired (or for any position except program director, a student in a human services field who is age 19 or 20) to 18 years of age or older.

• • Allows program director qualification of 5 or more years experience in licensed group care setting in addition to the current qualification of a bachelor’s degree and at least 2 years of supervised child welfare experience.

• • Repeals education or work experience qualifications for resident care staff.

• • Repeals relief help provisions.

Hiring staff members

• • Reduces required references from 3 to 2.

• • Repeals requirement for a tuberculosis test.

Staff training

• • Repeals the requirement that a new staff member sign and date their job description.

• • Revises the deadline for completion of orientation training from within the first week after hire to before the staff member may work independently with a resident.

• • Adds the topics of the communication log, staff conduct toward residents, and resident rights to orientation training.

• • Repeals the requirement that a staff member complete fire safety and evacuation training provided by the Wisconsin Technical College system or a comparable entity and instead requires that each licensee create fire evacuation procedures and train staff members on the procedures developed.

• • Adds a requirement of basic anti-human trafficking training for all staff members and advanced training for staff members who work in a group home that specializes in serving residents who have been sex trafficked.

• • Repeals limits on the format of continuing education training.

Personnel record for staff members

• • Adds written authorization from the program director or group home manager to administer medication to the list of documents in a staff member’s personnel record.

Employees or contractors who are not staff members

• • Creates a new section on an employee or contractor who works in a group home but is not a staff member.

• • Provides for the same hiring requirements as staff members, with the exception that the licensee does not need to determine that an employee or contractor who is not a staff member displays the capacity to successfully nurture and care for a resident.

• • Provides for the same requirements as staff members on transporting a resident, confidentiality, and child abuse or neglect reporting.

Volunteers

• • Creates new requirement for a background check for a volunteer with the same requirements as a staff member, except a fingerprint-based check of the FBI database is not required.

• • Adds a requirement that a volunteer who transports a resident provide documentation that their vehicle has liability insurance coverage.

Admission

• • Repeals the requirement that there be no more than 4 years difference in the ages of residents.

• • Revises the requirement of a medical exam of a new resident and a dental exam within 30 days after admission if the resident has not had a medical exam within the previous year before admission and a dental exam within 6 months before to instead require that the act of scheduling a medical and dental exam be completed within the first 30 days after admission, unless the resident has already had a medical and dental exam within the recommended periodicity schedule.