If we receive a complaint from any source, Community Care Licensing (CCL) conducts an investigation.  How investigations are handled depends upon whether the complaint involved an allegation of physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect.  If the complaint involves one of those issues, the police may be involved in the investigation.

Community Care Licensing will conduct the investigation.  However, you can be certain that our agency will support you throughout the process even if we are not able to discuss specifics of the case with you.

Your county social worker may also be investigating to determine if there is an immediate danger to the child that may require that the child be immediately moved to another resource home. 

The child involved will be interviewed away from your home whenever it is determined to be appropriate by the county social worker. 

You will also be interviewed, as will anyone else who has information regarding the complaint. The possible outcomes of an investigation are:

1. There is a complaint, which is determined to involve a possible risk to the child’s safety.  In such cases, the child will be removed from your home immediately pending the outcome of the investigation.
2. There is a complaint which is determined to be substantiated which does not involve an immediate risk to the child’s safety, but the agency feels that continuing the placement is no longer appropriate for the child.  In such a case, you would be given notice of our intent to move the child.  You would have the right to appeal that decision to our director and/or the child’s county placement worker.
3. There is a substantiated complaint relating to the violation of licensing standards.  A corrective action plan would be drawn up, and you would be given a specified amount of time to correct the problem.
4. The complaint may be determined to be unfounded, meaning that the events were not likely to have occurred, or
5. The complaint may be determined to be unsubstantiated, meaning that the events may have occurred but there is not sufficient evidence to make a determination.