Rules for the Licensing of Child Care Facilities 10-148 cmr chapter 32

CHAPTER I. CHILD CARE FACILITIES

DEFINITIONS

1. 
   “Abuse or neglect” means a threat to a child’s health or welfare by physical, mental, or emotional injury or impairment, sexual abuse or exploitation, deprivation of essential needs or lack of protection from these, by a person responsible for the child.
   

2. 
   “Adult” means a person eighteen (18) years of age and over.
   

3. 
   “Child or children” means a child or children under the age of sixteen (16) years.
   

4. 
   “Childcare Center” means
   

1. 
   A house or other place in which a person maintains or otherwise carries out a regular program, for consideration, for any part of a day providing care and protection for thirteen (13) or more children under thirteen (13) years of age; or
   

2. 
   Any location or locations operated as a single childcare program or by a single person or persons when there are more than twelve (12) children being cared for.
   

5. 
   "Child Care Facility" means a house or other place in which a person maintains or otherwise carries out a regular program, for consideration, for any part of a day providing care and protection for three (3) or more children under thirteen (13) years of age. Any program for children under 5 years of age that is located in a private school and programs that contract with one or more Child Development Services System sites are required to be licensed as a Child Care Facility.
   

1. 
   There are two types of Child Care Facilities:
   

1. 
   Child Care Center; and
   

2. 
   Small Childcare Facility.
   

2. 
   “Child Care Facility" does not include a facility operated by a family child care provider, a summer camp established solely for recreational and educational purposes, programs offering instruction to children for the purpose of teaching a skill such as karate, dance or basketball or a private school recognized by the Department of Education as a provider of equivalent instruction for the purpose of compulsory school attendance, or a formal public or private school in the nature of a kindergarten or elementary or secondary school approved by the Commissioner of Education in accordance with Title 20-A.
   

6. 
   “Corporal punishment” means actions against a child, including, but not limited to:
   

1. 
   Slapping;
   
2. 
   Striking;
   
3. 
   Shaking;
   
4. 
   Shoving;
   
5. 
   Spanking;
   
6. 
   Pinching;
   
7. 
   Twisting;
   
8. 
   Kicking;
   
9. 
   Biting;
   
10. 
    Ear pulling or ear twisting;
    
11. 
    Hair pulling;
    
12. 
    Forcing a child to taste or eat spicy, bitter or otherwise distasteful products for the purpose of discipline;
    
13. 
    Spraying with water as a means of controlling behavior;
    
14. 
    Placing tape over a child’s mouth;
    
15. 
    Mechanical restraints, such as tying a child to a chair
    
16. 
    Other forms of aggressive contact; or
    
17. 
    Requiring or forcing a child to take an uncomfortable position such as:
    
    1. 
       Squatting;
       
    2. 
       Kneeling;
       
    3. 
       Standing holding arms outstretched at sides or overhead;
       
    4. 
       Bending; or
       
    5. 
       Requiring or forcing a child to repeat physical movements.
       

7. 
   “Department” means the Department of Health and Human Services.
   
8. 
   “Director” means the individual having responsibility for carrying out policy and administering the facility. In a corporation or trust the individual delegated to carry out or enforce policies developed by the governing body or trustees. The director may also act as head teacher.
   

9. 
   “Field trip” means any excursion off the property of the Child Care Facility.
   

10. 
    “Governing body” means a person or persons ultimately responsible for the operation of a facility. The governing body has authority over the policies and activities of a facility.
    

11. 
    “Group” means a specific number of children assigned to specific staff using the same room or identifiable activity space. The space must be an individual room or a specific area within a large room. The area must be defined by a visible barrier, partition or other room divider having a height above the eye level of the children who will use that area. Maximum group size is determined by Section 28 of these rules.
    

12. 
    “Group leader” means the person having responsibility for a group of children in a facility licensed for thirteen (13) or more children.
    

13. 
    “Head teacher” means the individual having overall program responsibility for children enrolled at the facility. The head teacher may also act as director.
    

14. 
    “Infant/toddler program” means a childcare program serving children ages six (6) weeks to thirty-six (36) months.
    

15. 
    “Legal guardian” means the parent or other person who has legal decision-making authority for the child.
    

16. 
    “License” means written permission, whether provisional, temporary, conditional, or full by the department that authorizes the licensee to operate a Child Care Facility.
    

17. 
    “Licensee” means the person to whom a license has been issued.
    

18. 
    “Lifeguard” is a water safety attendant who has a current certificate issued by a lifeguard certifying authority recognized by the department.
    

19. 
    “Notifiable condition” refers to any communicable disease, occupational disease, or environmental disease, the occurrence or suspected occurrence of which is required to be reported to the Department of Health and Human Services pursuant to 22 M.R.S.A. §§ 802 and 1493 and listed as a notifiable disease or condition in the department’s Rules Relating to Notifiable Diseases and Conditions, 10-144 C.M.R. Ch. 258.
    

20. 
    “Occasional care program” means a Child Care Facility caring for children on a drop-in or otherwise irregular basis, for example, one located in a ski area or shopping center.
    

21. 
    “Operator” means the person operating a Child Care Facility.
    

22. 
    “Parent” means the birth or adoptive mother or father, legal guardian or legal custodian of the child.
    

23. 
    “Person” means any individual, partnership, association, organization, corporation, or trust.
    

24. 
    “Preschool child” means a child age two and one half (2 ½) years through five (5) years old.
    

25. 
    “Provider” means any person, partnership, agency, voluntary association, or corporation who owns/leases a building and conducts a children’s day care program for children in that building.
    

26. 
    “Pool” means any basin, changer or tank constructed of impervious material, located either indoors or outdoors containing an artificial body of water for swimming or recreational activity.
    

27. 
    “Relatives” means a child's blood mother, father, brother, sister, grandparent, great grandparent, uncle, aunt, niece, nephew, or first cousin.
    

28. 
    “Relatives by adoption” "Relatives by adoption" shall be considered as blood relatives.
    

29. 
    “Relatives by marriage” means a child's stepmother, stepfather, stepbrother, stepsister, step-grandparent, step-great grandparent and brother or sister of stepparent.
    

30. 
    “School age child” means a child who is at least five (5) years of age and under the age of sixteen (16) years.
    

31. 
    “Small Childcare Facility” means a house or other place, not the residence of the operator, in which a person, or combination of persons, maintains or otherwise carries out a regular program, for consideration, for any part of a day providing care and protection for 3 - 12 children under the age of thirteen (13).
    

32. 
    “Staff” means any individual who provides care and protection for a child(ren) under the age of sixteen (16) years of age in a Child Care Facility.
    

33. 
    “Substitute” means an individual who takes the place of an absent staff member.
    

34. 
    “Swimming Pool” means a pool with a depth of more than twenty-four inches (24”) at any point.
    

35. 
    "Volunteer” means a person who helps or provides service without compensation in a Child Care Facility.
    

36. 
    “Wading pool” means a pool with a maximum water depth of twenty-four inches (24”).
    

37. 
    “Water safety attendant” is a person trained in rescue techniques whose job is to watch over swimmers in a wading pool, a swimming pool, or off-site swimming and wading destinations. As required by these rules, appropriately trained water safety attendants include a lifeguard; a person with valid CPR and first aid certificates; and a person who has completed a D department-approved basic water safety course that includes training in non-swimming rescue techniques.