CCLU News and Updates

The latest news, information, and communications for child care providers in New Hampshire!

April 14, 2023

This message is meant to clarify the BRC process and requirements. We understand there have been changes, many of which are in response to your feedback. Hopefully, this information will further assist with the BRC process.

First, based on your feedback, we are reviewing all of the materials and guides shared and revising as needed so all the information is current, consistent, and correct. Until then, please see tips below!

We are regularly receiving hand written forms. Please remember, everyone 18 years and older completes the BRC process in NHCIS. Only mail forms that have been printed from the individual's NHCIS BRC application as indicated below:
- If the fingerprint appointment is scheduled and paid for online using the Department of Safety CHRI Applicant Portal, mail the following to the CCLU:
  - * "Employment Eligibility Card" form and $25.00 check made payable to Child Care Licensing Unit, if applicable; and
  - Any out-of-state forms as directed on the CCLU web page. Go to the Out-of-State Abuse and Neglect Checks web page to find forms from other states. Please note that these forms are not available in NHCIS.
- If the fingerprint appointment is at a local police department:
  - * "CHRI Page" form and $28.25 check made payable to State of NH - Criminal Records;
  - Applicant/Licensing LiveScan Fingerprinting form provided by the local police department at the appointment;
  - * "Employment Eligibility Card" form and $25.00 check made payable to the Child Care Licensing Unit, if applicable; and
  - Any out-of-state forms as directed on the CCLU web page. Go to the Out-of-State Abuse and Neglect Checks web page to find forms from other states. Please note that these forms are not available in NHCIS.
    Please note, any forms with an asterisk* are printed from NHCIS in the individual's background record check submission documents. The names in quotes above are the named of the documents as they appear in My Documents in NHCIS.
Individuals 10-17 years of age do not use NHCIS for BRC. The Household and Personnel Form for staff and household members between 10-17 years of age require a notary to establish verification of their identity, which permits CCLU to complete the check of the NH Central Registry. The Household and Personnel Form must be notarized and mailed to CCLU.
Until we receive all applicable out of state forms/fees, the application is incomplete and the individual will be unable to work. We often do not receive the out of state forms for applicants who have submitted their BRC application. All out of state forms/fees are mailed to CCLU, unless directed in the instructions under a particular state on the Out-of-State Abuse and Neglect Checks web page to use a state's online portal. Note: Once all documents are received, the applicant will be able to work under supervision once the fingerprint results are received and the program is notified. The results from out of state can take up to 45 days before the applicant is considered "eligible."
Notifications are sent to the applicant regarding their application and any Helpdesk tickets they have submitted. Please be sure they are checking their emails, including junk or spam folders, for these notifications.
Submit Helpdesk tickets if there are any issues with your account or the BRC application. The Helpdesk will respond via email so make sure that is being checked and responded to. If you do not have a resolution within 48 hours after contacting the Helpdesk and responding to their emails, please send an email to cclunit@dhhs.nh.gov with the issue and include that you have been working with the Helpdesk so we can review and determine next steps.
Individuals will receive emails when their BRC is due to expire 4 months prior to expiration. The program can track their staff expiration dates using the Staff Roster. We are working on a solution to have the program receive email notifications for their staff and will update you when that is available.

Thank you for your continued feedback and recommendations; this is the way change can happen. We continue to hear positive feedback on the system, and hope you are seeing improvements as well! Please remember all our communications since October 2022 are posted on our CCLU News and Updates web page.

April 5, 2023

As previously communicated below, the visit process is being developed in NHCIS. We anticipated we would be completing some visits in March in NHCIS, with the goal of all visits in April. We are continuing our testing and refining NHCIS to ensure it works as intended prior to completing any program visits.

We thank you for your patience. Please contact the CCLU with any questions or concerns at ccluoffice@dhhs.nh.gov.

Thank you!

March 3, 2023

As communicated on February 27th and March 1st, visits are coming to NHCIS!

It will include features that you have requested over the years, such as level of compliance, a collaborative corrective action plan process completed fully online, and easier viewing of visit history on the child care search website.

Screenshot

The public website will indicate the level of compliance based on a total, giving parents the ability to see the number of rules in compliance at a visit as well as what was non-compliant. Here is in example of how it will appear (this is an image from the Massachusetts online website, which is the same program used for NHCIS).

Screenshot

Corrective action plans will be completed in the program portal, streamlining the process so the plans are entered and submitted online, without needing to print and handwrite your plan.

The corrective action plans will be available to the public as seen below (this example also from the Massachusetts website).

These changes will be rolled out in stages throughout the month of March, with the goal of having all visits completed in NHCIS starting in April. Some visits completed in March will be done in the system, as the goal will be to make sure all is working as intended before we move completely in NHCIS. If you have a visit from CCLU scheduled in March, your licensing coordinator will let you know if your visit will be completed in NHCIS and will provide additional information and support as needed.

Be on the lookout for additional communication that will include guides on using NHCIS for visits.

NHCIS is continually updated to improve the user experience, and when changes are made which impact any process, the NHCIS User Guide is updated to reflect those changes.

March 1, 2023

As communicated on February 27, visits are coming to NHCIS!

Throughout March, CCLU will begin completing visits using NHCIS. If your program has a visit in March, your licensing coordinator will let you know if it will be completed in NHCIS and what you can expect. The NHCIS User Guide is being updated to include the visit process.

What stays the same: The licensing coordinator will conduct their visit and have an exit meeting at the end of the visit or shortly thereafter. A supervisor will review the visit prior to sending the results to the program. Once the provider/director receives the outcome of the visit, they will provide corrective action plans within 21 calendar days if non-compliances were found, which will be reviewed and approved by the licensing coordinator. The visit results will post to the public website 21 business days from the day the program received the results.

What will be different: As soon as the supervisor approves the visit, the program will receive an email indicating the visit is available in the portal. The provider/director will log into their portal, review the statement of findings and complete the corrective action plans, then submit. The licensing coordinator will receive a notification that the corrective action plan has been submitted via the portal and will review and approve.

With the visit process in NHCIS, the time from the visit to when the program can review and submit their corrective action plan will be decreased, as will the time for the licensing coordinator to review and approve the corrective action plan.

More details to come, including images of the system, and when the guides will be available for review!

February 27, 2023

Exciting news! Working with our DCYF colleagues, we are able to remove the notary requirement on the Household and Personnel Form (HP) for staff/household members 18 years and older, and therefore, the form will no longer need to be mailed to CCLU!

Starting now:

If the fingerprint appointment is scheduled and paid for online using the Department of Safety CHRI Applicant Portal, mail the following to the CCLU:

* "Employment Eligibility Card" form and $25.00 check made payable to Child Care Licensing Unit if applicable; and
Any out-of-state forms as directed on the CCLU web page.

OR, if the fingerprint appointment is at a local police department:

* "CHRI Page" form and $28.25 check made payable to State of NH - Criminal Records;
Applicant/Licensing LiveScan Fingerprinting form provided by the local police department at the appointment;
* "Employment Eligibility Card" form and $25.00 check made payable to Child Care Licensing Unit if applicable; and
Any out-of-state-forms as directed on the CCLU web page.

Please note, forms with an asterisk * are printed from NHCIS in the individual's background record check submission documents. The names in quotes above are the names of the documents as they appear in My Documents in NHCIS.

Household and Personnel Forms for staff and household members between 10-17 years of age require a notary to establish verification of their identity, which permits CCLU to complete the check of the NH Central Registry. The Household and Personnel Form must be notarized and mailed to CCLU. We continue to research other options and will update you when we learn more.

The email template notification sent by NHCIS after the individual's BRC is submitted will be updated soon to reflect the changes above. Until that occurs, it will still request that the Household and Personnel form be mailed and notarized, but it is no longer required. Please disregard the notification until we can remove from NHCIS.

Exciting Changes Coming in March:

The process for documenting visits at child care programs will be in NHCIS! It will include features that you have requested over the years, such as:

The public portal will indicate the number of rules in compliance out of the total number of rules reviewed.
The ability for you to complete the corrective action plan in the portal and submit back to CCLU.

More details will be provided in separate communications!

NHCIS is continually updated to improve the user experience, and when changes are made which impact any processes, the NHCIS User Guide is updated to reflect those changes.

November 18, 2022

Dear Child Care Providers,

On November 10, 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services (Department), Child Care Licensing Unit (CCLU) notified licensed Child Care agencies that effective December 15, 2022, the Department would no longer be able to grant waivers of He-C 4002.41(g) due to federal requirements.

There has been some confusion regarding what this change means and we hope this correspondence provides greater clarity.

Currently, CCLU grants waivers to allow a potential child care employee to be present once ALL paperwork has been submitted to CCLU and until CCLU receives their federal results. The waiver is not necessary for the individual to be present in an agency following the CCLU’s confirmation of the federal results.

In other words, once the waivers are no longer granted on December 15, the potential child care employee does not have to wait for notice of full eligibility from CCLU to begin work. A potential child care employee is able to work under supervision as soon as the federal record result is received by CCLU. CCLU will send out a letter to the employer to let them know that the potential child care employee may work under supervision between the time the federal results are received and when CCLU finishes the full background investigation. Although it may take longer for those who receive fingerprints through their local PD versus the state police live scan, the time from which the fingerprints are completed to the time the results are available for CCLU’s review is a few days to a week.

As referenced above, to ensure that Child Care Agencies are able to allow for a potential employee to be present in an agency as soon as the federal results are received, CCLU will continue to send out a letter notifying the agency as to whether or not the employee is able to be present under supervision in the agency, as soon as the results are available to CCLU. Please remember, if the federal results show ineligibility, the potential employee cannot work in the child care center.

CCLU and the DHHS Child Care Development Bureau are working closely with the NH Department of Safety (DOS) to ensure federal results are received by CCLU as soon as possible. CCLU is working to streamline the background investigation process through notifications and other system improvements to improve wait times.

For questions, please contact CCLU at ccluoffice@dhhs.nh.gov or by calling 271-9025.

Child Care Licensing Unit
Bureau of Facility Licensing and Certification
Department of Health and Human Services
129 Pleasant Street
Concord, NH 03301

1-800-852-3345 ext. 9025 (NH only)
(603) 271-9025

November 10, 2022

Dear Child Care Providers,

Many of you have requested the Department of Health and Human Services Child Care Licensing Unit (CCLU) to grant waivers to NH Administrative Rule He-C 4002.41(g), which states, “Individuals required to complete background record checks…shall not have access to children or be present in the program until the program receives notice of eligibility from the Unit”. This waiver allows for individuals to work under supervision after submitting all required background record check materials pending receipt of the results.

To maintain compliance with the 2014 CCDF Reauthorization Act, CCLU cannot accept or approve waivers to He-C 4002.41 effective December 15, 2022.
Additionally, pursuant to He-C 4002.41(a), all background check requests must be submitted using the NH Connections Information System (NHCIS) portal. We will no longer be accepting paper submissions effective December 15, 2022.

Current guides on the process can be found:

On the CCLU News and Updates web page
On the NH Connections Child Care Licensing website
In the NHCIS portal

In addition, detailed videos on the process are in development and will be available on or around November 21, 2022. These videos will be posted on the websites noted above once complete.

October 7, 2022

Good afternoon,

This email is to provide direction regarding staff rosters in NH Connections. We are requesting that all directors discontinue adding staff using the "Add Staff" button on their staff roster or by initiating the Transfer Staff option. Issues have occured with staff being unable to access the system or their account when they did not initiate access. When a staff person logs into their account or creates and account and then connects to your program, they are able to access the correct account with their BRC application and results. If the director adds the staff it could be linking the staff to an account the staff person isn't able to access.

We know there are duplicate records and we are working to correct those with the IT department.

We ask that you work on updating your staff roster by adding end dates as applicable. As mentioned in a previous email, the system was updated to ensure you had access to all the staff who work in your program. We know a lot of previous staff have been added to your roster as a result, but it was the only way to fix the roster so all staff were on it.

Detailed instructions with screenshots for completing registration and BRC applications in NHCIS is attached. The last page of these instructions gives information on what the director/provider will see in their staff roster. Some updates are being implemented in the next week or two which will include the visibility of staff's expiration and the removal of the "Add Staff" button. An updated instructions document for staff to generate a transfer of eligibility request has been included in this email as well.

If the instructions are not clear or if you have questions regarding the instructions, please let us know so that we can update them. We welcome your feedback and questions to cclunit@dhhs.nh.gov.

Relevant Forms: