Southwestern Child Development Commission, Inc.

Finding 2024-001 - Employee Record Retention and Health and Safety Training Federal Program: CCDF Cluster: AL# 93.575 - Child Care and Development Block Grant AL# 93.596 - Child Care Mandatory and Matching Funds of the CCDF U.S. Department of Health and Human Services MATERIAL WEAKNESS NONCOMPLIANCE Special Tests and Provisions Criteria: The federal award requires the Organization to ensure that all childcare providers who have direct responsibility for the care and oversight of children, including center administrators, to complete health and safety training that meets 11 specific requirements. In addition, these providers must participate in annual training appropriate to job responsibilities. The federal award also requires supporting documentation be prepared and retained within the employees’ files to support expenditures charged to the grants. Condition: Documentation for employee timesheets and health and safety training certificates was not consistently retained for all employees. Effect: Noncompliance with the health and safety training requirements of the federal award could subject the Organization to the risk of suspension of funding. Cause: Employee health and safety training requirements are being tracked and maintained at individual childcare centers by the direct services department. A formal centralized system for tracking and maintaining employee health and safety training requirements has not been implemented. Additionally, during the year ended June 30, 2024, the final remaining agency operated child care center officially closed. Employees took their records and certificates for all safety training and the Organization was unable to provide backup copies. Context: We tested 11 out of 108 employees who serve children receiving subsidies. We noted eleven instances in which employees’ files were missing required health and safety training certificates. Recommendation: Develop a formal system for tracking employee health and safety training and maintaining those certificates at the facility where the employee works and within their permanent employee file. Additionally, procedures should be implemented to retain backups of employee timesheets to prevent the loss of data. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: Management of the Organization agrees with this finding and will adhere to the Corrective Action Plan.

Finding 2024-001 - Employee Record Retention and Health and Safety Training Federal Program: CCDF Cluster: AL# 93.575 - Child Care and Development Block Grant AL# 93.596 - Child Care Mandatory and Matching Funds of the CCDF U.S. Department of Health and Human Services MATERIAL WEAKNESS NONCOMPLIANCE Special Tests and Provisions Name of Contact Person: Juanita Dillard Corrective Action: As of January 2024, all childcare centers operated by the Organization have been closed. Health and safety training courses will no longer be required. Completion Date: January 31, 2024

2023-002

Finding 2023-002 - Employee Record Retention and Health and Safety Training Federal Program: CCDF Cluster: AL# 93.575 - Child Care and Development Block Grant AL# 93.596 - Child Care Mandatory and Matching Funds of the CCDF U.S. Department of Health and Human Services MATERIAL WEAKNESS NONCOMPLIANCE Special Tests and Provisions Criteria: The federal award requires the Organization to ensure that all childcare providers who have direct responsibility for the care and oversight of children, including center administrators, to complete health and safety training that meets 11 specific requirements. In addition, these providers must participate in annual training appropriate to job responsibilities. The federal award also requires supporting documentation be prepared and retained within the employees’ files to support expenditures charged to the grants. Condition: Documentation for employee timesheets and health and safety training certificates was not consistently retained for all employees. Effect: Noncompliance with the health and safety training requirements of the federal award could subject the Organization to the risk of suspension of funding. Cause: Employee health and safety training requirements are being tracked and maintained at individual childcare centers by the direct services department. A formal centralized system for tracking and maintaining employee health and safety training requirements has not been implemented. Additionally, during the year ended June 30, 2023, community and staff were informed that agency operated child care centers would be officially closing. Employees took their records and certificates for all safety training and the Organization was unable to provide backup copies. Context: We tested 16 out of 161 employees who serve children receiving subsidies. We noted sixteen instances in which employees’ files were missing required health and safety training certificates. Recommendation: Develop a formal system for tracking employee health and safety training and maintaining those certificates at the facility where the employee works and within their permanent employee file. Additionally, procedures should be implemented to retain backups of employee timesheets to prevent the loss of data. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: Management of the Organization agrees with this finding and will adhere to the Corrective Action Plan.

Finding 2023-002 - Employee Record Retention and Health and Safety Training Federal Program: CCDF Cluster: AL# 93.575 - Child Care and Development Block Grant AL# 93.596 - Child Care Mandatory and Matching Funds of the CCDF U.S. Department of Health and Human Services MATERIAL WEAKNESS NONCOMPLIANCE Special Tests and Provisions Name of Contact Person: Juanita GreggCorrective Action: • Upon hire and through the SWCDC onboarding process for new child care center employees, Center Directors will review the attached Health and Safety Training document as part of the orientation process. Tablets are available for those individuals who do not have access to laptops. • New teachers will be directed to contact the Learning and Development Director with questions upon registration to SWCDC’s online training system which holds all required Health and Safety Trainings and is approved by NC DCDEE. All courses are approved by DCDEE, meet hourly requirements and are CEU worthy. Electronic certificates are submitted to the individual electronically through a personal email address. The following link is a list of Health and Safety courses: H&S Training Course List • Upon completion of Health and Safety courses, the employee will document their completion on the appropriate SWCDC orientation documentation and submit to the Center Director via email. • The Center Director will be responsible for ensuring receipt of the certificate, maintain in the staff file, and then document accordingly for annual compliance monitoring. • As onboarding continues for the new employee, periodic monitoring from Direct Services Manager, Child Care Resource and Referral, and other identified individuals will review staff files and monitor timely completion and compliance for Health and Safety Trainings. We have hired a position into Workforce Development to provide this service and serve as a resource to our Center Directors. This individual will do spot checks for these trainings on-site. For those child care center employees who maintain in good standing with successful completion of Health and Safety Trainings, he/she will be eligible for incentive based awards quarterly. Such as: quarterly drawing for classroom supplies, gift cards, self-care resources, etc. • For those child care center employees who are challenged with successful completion, those individuals will be targeted to create an action plan to meet the requirements. Resulting in opportunities to discuss technology needs, limitations or content area concerns, or other areas of concern that administration may be unaware of at the time of hire. • SWCDC created Orientation Notebooks for each center director. These notebooks contain all SWCDC documents needed for successful onboarding and training for new staff. These notebooks contain the updated forms attached. During orientation, new center staff are now required to create an online learning account through ON24, which SWCDC manages. This training account gives new staff access to the H&S trainings they need, as well as, provides additional resources and access to other trainings not owned by SWCDC to complete the H&S requirements as well. • SWCDC Hired a Fidelity Coach through Workforce Development. While this is a new position for SWCDC, part of her job duties will be to randomly check employee files for H&S training completion. These random checks will be in conjunction with each center’s annual compliance visit. Completion Date: January 22, 2024

2021-001, 2022-002

Federal Program: CCDF Cluster: AL# 93.575 - Child Care and Development Block Grant AL# 93.596 - Child Care Mandatory and Matching Funds of the CCDF U.S. Department of Health and Human Services SIGNIFICANT DEFICIENCY NONCOMPLIANCE Special Tests and Provisions Criteria: The federal award requires the Organization to ensure that all childcare providers who have direct responsibility for the care and oversight of children, including center administrators, to complete health and safety training that meets 11 specific requirements. In addition, these providers must participate in annual training appropriate to job responsibilities. The federal award also requires supporting documentation be prepared and retained within the employees? files to support expenditures charged to the grants. Condition: Documentation for employee timesheets and health and safety training certificates was not consistently retained for all employees. Effect: Noncompliance with the health and safety training requirements of the federal award could subject the Organization to the risk of suspension of funding. Missing timesheets for hours charged to the grant could result in questioned costs. Cause: Employee health and safety training requirements are being tracked and maintained at individual childcare centers by the direct services department. A formal centralized system for tracking and maintaining employee health and safety training requirements has not been implemented. Additionally, during the year ended June 30, 2022, the Organization transitioned between payroll service providers resulting in the loss of employment records for some employees whose service was terminated prior to the conversion. Context: We tested 15 out of 115 employees who serve children receiving subsidies. We noted three instances in which employees? files were missing required health and safety training certificates. We tested 30 employee timesheet files noting two instances of terminated employee timesheet records being incomplete. Recommendation: Develop a formal system for tracking employee health and safety training and maintaining those certificates at the facility where the employee works and within their permanent employee file. Additionally, procedures should be implemented to retain backups of employee timesheets to prevent the loss of data. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: Management of the Organization agrees with this finding and will adhere to the Corrective Action Plan.

Federal Program: CCDF Cluster: AL# 93.575 - Child Care and Development Block Grant AL# 93.596 - Child Care Mandatory and Matching Funds of the CCDF U.S. Department of Health and Human Services SIGNIFICANT DEFICIENCY NONCOMPLIANCE Special Tests and Provisions Corrective Action: ?Upon hire and through the SWCDC onboarding process for new child care center employees, Center Directors will review the attached Health and Safety Training document as part of the orientation process. Tablets are available for those individuals who do not have access to laptops. ?New teachers will be directed to contact the Learning and Development Director with questions upon registration to SWCDC?s online training system which holds all required Health and Safety Trainings and is approved by NC DCDEE. All courses are approved by DCDEE, meet hourly requirements and are CEU worthy. Electronic certificates are submitted to the individual electronically through a personal email address. The following link is a list of Health and Safety courses: H&S Training Course List ?Upon completion of Health and Safety courses, the employee will document their completion on the appropriate SWCDC orientation documentation, and submit to the Center Director via email. ?The Center Director will be responsible for ensuring receipt of the certificate, maintain in the staff file, and then document accordingly for annual compliance monitoring. ?As onboarding continues for the new employee, periodic monitoring from Direct Services Manager, Child Care Resource and Referral, and other identified individuals will review staff files and monitor timely completion and compliance for Health and Safety Trainings. We have hired a position into Workforce Development to provide this service and serve as a resource to our Center Directors. This individual will do spot checks for these trainings on-site. ?For those child care center employees who maintain in good standing with successful completion of Health and Safety Trainings, he/she will be eligible for incentive based awards quarterly. Such as: quarterly drawing for classroom supplies, gift cards, self-care resources, etc. ?For those child care center employees who are challenged with successful completion, those individuals will be targeted to create an action plan to meet the requirements. Resulting in opportunities to discuss technology needs, limitations or content area concerns, or other areas of concern that administration may be unaware of at the time of hire. ?SWCDC created Orientation Notebooks for each center director. These notebooks contain all SWCDC documents needed for successful onboarding and training for new staff. These notebooks contain the updated forms attached. During orientation, new center staff are now required to create an online learning account through ON24, which SWCDC manages. This training account gives new staff access to the H&S trainings they need, as well as, provides additional resources and access to other trainings not owned by SWCDC to complete the H&S requirements as well. ?SWCDC Hired a Fidelity Coach through Workforce Development. While this is a new position for SWCDC, part of her job duties will be to randomly check employee files for H&S training completion. These random checks will be in conjunction with each center?s annual compliance visit. Completion Date: January 19, 2023

2021-001

Federal Program: AL# 93.575 - Child Care and Development Block Grant U.S. Department of Health and Human Services SIGNIFICANT DEFICIENCY NONCOMPLIANCE Special Tests and Provisions Criteria: The federal award requires the Organization to ensure that all childcare providers who have direct responsibility for the care and oversight of children, including center administrators, to complete health and safety training that meets 11 specific requirements. In addition, these providers must participate in annual training appropriate to job responsibilities. Condition: Documentation for health and safety training certificates was not consistently retained for all employees. Effect: Noncompliance with the health and safety training requirements of the federal award could subject the Organization to the risk of suspension of funding. Cause: Employee health and safety training requirements are being tracked and maintained at individual childcare centers by the direct services department. A formal centralized system for tracking and maintaining employee health and safety training requirements has not been implemented. Context: We tested 11 out of 111 employees who serve children receiving subsidies. We noted four instances in which employees? files were missing required health and safety training certificates. All employees tested were missing annual ongoing training certificates. Recommendation: Develop a formal system for tracking employee health and safety training and maintaining those certificates at the facility where the employee works and within their permanent employee file. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: Management of the Organization agrees with this finding and will adhere to the Corrective Action Plan.

Federal Program: AL# 93.575 - Child Care and Development Block Grant U.S. Department of Health and Human Services SIGNIFICANT DEFICIENCY NONCOMPLIANCE Special Tests and Provisions Name of Contact Person: Deidre McMahon Corrective Action: Over the past year, Southwestern Child Development Commission Inc., hired an Assistant Director, a new agency position to directly support and focus on specific areas of programmatic work. The Assistant Director was tasked by the SWCDC Strategic Planning Team to focus heavily on Early Childhood Workforce Development. This work focuses heavily on the several projects that will directly support child care teaching staff towards increased education and training. With this in mind, Southwestern?s Corrective Action Plan for Health and Safety Trainings completion by child care staff will consist of the following: ? Upon hire and through the SWCDC onboarding process for new child care center employees, Center Directors will review the attached Health and Safety Training document as part of the orientation process. Tablets are available for those individuals who do not have access to laptops. ? New teachers will be directed to contact the Learning and Development Director with questions upon registration to SWCDC?s online training system which holds all required Health and Safety Trainings and is approved by NC DCDEE. All courses are approved by DCDEE, meet hourly requirements and are CEU worthy. Electronic certificates are submitted to the individual electronically through a personal email address. The following link is a list of Health and Safety courses: H&S Training Course List ? Upon completion of Health and Safety courses, the employee will document their completion on the appropriate SWCDC orientation documentation, and submit to the Center Director via email. ? The Center Director will be responsible for ensuring receipt of the certificate, maintain in the staff file and then document accordingly for annual compliance monitoring. ? As onboarding continues for the new employee, periodic monitoring from Direct Services Manager, Child Care Resource and Referral, and other identified individuals will review staff files and monitor timely completion and compliance for Health and Safety Trainings. ? For those child care center employees who maintain in good standing with successful completion of Health and Safety Trainings, he/she will be eligible for incentive based awards quarterly. Such as: quarterly drawing for classroom supplies, gift cards, self-care resources, etc. ? For those child care center employees who are challenged with successful completion, those individuals will be targeted to create an action plan to meet the requirements. Resulting in opportunities to discuss technology needs, limitations or content area concerns, or other areas of concern that administration may be unaware of at the time of hirer. ? As the Assistant Director continues into the next year, areas of focus will include development and implementation of: Professional Development Plans, Performance Appraisal System, Merit raise implementation and a Behavior Charting System which we believe will benefit our early childhood workforce and encourage them towards higher standards of quality and performance. Completion Date: January 11, 2022

2020-001

Finding 2020-001 - Health and Safety Training Federal Program: CFDA# 93.575 - Child Care and Development Block Grant U.S. Department of Health and Human Services SIGNIFICANT DEFICIENCY NONCOMPLIANCE Special Tests and Provisions Criteria: The federal award requires the Organization to ensure that employees serving children that receive subsidies have the necessary health and safety training that meet 11 specific requirements. Condition: Documentation for health and safety training certificates was not consistently retained for all employees. Effect: Noncompliance with the health and safety training requirements of the federal award can subject the Organization to the risk of suspension of funding. Cause: Employee health and safety training requirements are being tracked and maintained at individual centers by the direct services department. The Organization does not have a formal centralized system for tracking and maintaining employee health and safety training requirements. Additionally, the corrective action plan was not fully implemented during the fiscal year as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic disrupting operations. Context: We tested 15 out of 145 employees who serve children that receive subsidies. We noted one instance of an employee?s file missing required health and safety training certificates. Recommendation: Develop a formal centralized system for tracking employee health and safety training and maintaining those certificates at the facility where the employee works and within their permanent employee file. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: Management of the Organization agrees with this finding and will adhere to the Corrective Action Plan.

Finding 2020-001 - Health and Safety Training Federal Program: CFDA# 93.575 - Child Care and Development Block Grant U.S. Department of Health and Human Services SIGNIFICANT DEFICIENCY NONCOMPLIANCE Special Tests and Provisions Name of Contact Person: Annette Shook Corrective Action: As stated Southwestern had implemented a plan to make sure all Health and Safety trainings were up to date and completed on time but due to COVID and the closing of all centers in March the plan was not fully implemented. We will continue with the plan and I will send a reminder to all directors. The corrective action plan from last year was as follows: Attached is the Health and Safety form that all directors will begin immediately using for all employees. Additionally employees will be given the division?s approved course list. The director will date this form on the first day a staff begins whether substituting or full time, so that the beginning date is always known. Directors will check the forms with annual evaluations and every 6 months following. All health and safety trainings will be attached to this. There will be a signature/dateline for director?s to document verification. Completion Date: January 5, 2021

2019-001

Finding 2019-001 - Health and Safety Training Federal Program: CFDA# 93.575 - Child Care and Development Block Grant U.S. Department of Health and Human Services SIGNIFICANT DEFICIENCY NONCOMPLIANCE Special Tests and Provisions Criteria: The federal award requires the Organization to ensure that employees serving children that receive subsidies have the necessary health and safety training that meet 11 specific requirements. Condition: Documentation for health and safety training certificates was not consistently retained for all employees. Effect: Noncompliance with the health and safety training requirements of the federal award can subject the Organization to the risk of suspension of funding. Cause: Employee health and safety training requirements are being tracked and maintained at individual centers by the direct services department. The Organization does not have a formal centralized system for tracking and maintaining employee health and safety training requirements. Context: We tested 16 out of 163 employees who serve children that receive subsidies. We noted one instance of an employee not obtaining the required health and safety training within the required time frame. Additionally, one employee?s file was missing health and safety training certificates. Recommendation: Develop a formal centralized system for tracking employee health and safety training and maintaining those certificates at the facility where the employee works and within their permanent employee file. Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions: Management of the Organization agrees with this finding and will adhere to the Corrective Action Plan.

Finding 2019-001 - Health and Safety Training Federal Program: CFDA# 93.575 - Child Care and Development Block Grant U.S. Department of Health and Human Services SIGNIFICANT DEFICIENCY NONCOMPLIANCE Special Tests and Provisions Name of Contact Person: Annette Shook Corrective Action: We have implemented a Health and Safety form that all directors will begin immediately using for all employees. Additionally employees will be given the division's approved course list. The director will date this form on the first day a staff begins whether substituting or full time, so that the beginning date is always known. Directors will check the forms with annual evaluations and every 6 months following. All health and safety trainings will be attached to this. There will be a signature/dateline for director's to document verification. Completion Date: January 20, 2020