FAQ

Oklahoma has five levels of quality for all licensed child care programs, called Stars. All licensed programs immediately qualify as a 1 Star. Programs may increase their Star level by meeting additional criteria. Quality criteria include:

• Commitment to minimum licensing requirements
• Management and administration
• Workforce qualifications and professional development
• Learning and development
• Family partnerships
• Program evaluation and continuous quality improvement

‘Numerous, repeated, and serious’ is a category of non-compliance that include the following regulations.

(1) Numerous non-compliance is monitoring visits with:

(A) five or more Licensing requirement sections documented as non-compliant on the monitoring checklist for a family child care home or large child care home;

(B) six or more Licensing requirement sections documented as non-compliant on the monitoring checklist for a child care center, day camp, drop-in, out-of-school time, part-day program, or program for sick children with a licensed capacity of less than 60; or

(C) seven or more Licensing requirement sections for a child care center, day camp, drop-in, out-of-school time, part-day program, or program for sick children with a licensed capacity of 60 or more.

(2) Repeated non-compliance is three or more documented incidents of non‑compliance with the same requirement within the last 12 months. Missing immunizations are considered a repeated non‑compliance when regarding the same child.

(3) Serious non-compliance is non-compliance with Licensing requirements exposing children to conditions presenting an imminent risk of harm based on the child's age, the amount of time the operator was out of compliance, and the operator's efforts to mitigate the risk. Serious non-compliance is identified through Licensing observations, confirmed complaint investigations, and/or self-reported incidences. Failure to comply with licensing requirements that may be considered as serious non-compliance include:

(A) staff-child ratio;

(B) child supervision;

(C) infant sleep environments and safe-sleep training;

(D) prohibited disciplinary actions;

(E) licensed capacity;

(F) transportation;

(G) water activities;

(H) pools and other water hazards;

(I) multiple hazards;

(J) weapons;

(K) failure to report child abuse or human trafficking;

(L) knowingly permitting access to children by individuals identified as restricted or Restricted Registry registrants;

(M) failure to obtain background investigations or Restricted Registry searches;

(N) medication administration;

(O) room temperatures;

(P) heat sources and/or loss of any utility service; and

(Q) cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and first aid training.