The Warning Signs

Every child care center and family child care home facing a license revocation action has experienced early warning signs of the Administrative Action.  In most instances, the action was predated by frequent inspections and citations.  In some cases a single event triggered scrutiny by Community Care Licensing and a series of inspections.  In other instances a pattern of minor violations of Title 22 and the Health and Safety Code lead to the license revocation action.  In many cases the single event or series of violations lead to a Non-compliance conference.  During the conference Community Care Licensing officials confronted the licensee with a list of violations and demanded an explanation and/or plan for continued compliance.  In most of these instances the Non-compliance conference lead to C.C.L.’s referral of the case to the Legal Division of the Department of Social Services with a recommendation for license revocation.

Accusation

An Accusation is formal notice of the Department of Social Service’s administrative action to revoke a license.  The document itself will be served by mail or in person and will appear as a court document.  When served, the licensee has a limited amount of time to file a Notice of Defense to protect their right to an Administrative Hearing.  Without timely service of the Notice of Defense the Department of Social Services will adopt an order revoking the license.

Temporary Suspension Order

A temporary suspension order has serious consequences.  In effect, a temporary suspension order will close the business on the effective date of the order.  Moreover, the temporary suspension order (TSO) will accelerate the date of a hearing.  As a result, recipients of a temporary suspension order should contact legal counsel as soon as possible.