Most childcare providers in California don’t know that Community Care Licensing (CCLD) has a mandatory deadline to respond to appeals. Preschool owners and administrators I’ve spoken with have told me that they have appealed Type A and Type B citations, but CCLD never responded, so they just gave up. But if CCLD fails to decide an appeal on time, that means the citation should automatically be dismissed. Here’s why:
The childcare licensing agency must follow the law
The section of the California Health & Safety Code that lays out the timeline to appeal licensing citations (section 1596.99, among others) says that the licensing agency “shall” notify the facility of its decision on an appeal within a certain number of day. Under California law, “shall” means “must.”
It can be complicated to calculate exactly when CCLD’s deadline would be to respond to your appeal. This is because the appeal rights include squishy dates for when the agency can “request” more information, and when you as the provider “may” provide it. It is also complicated because the appeal rights use “business days” and not “calendar days.” Thus, you must not count weekends and holidays when calculating the deadline. (My step-by-step guide to appealing licensing citations includes instructions on exactly how to calculate CCLD’s deadline to respond to your appeal.)
Roughly speaking, CCLD’s deadline will be about 120 business days after you submit your appeal.
What do I do if CCLD misses the deadline?
If the Regional Manager misses their deadline to respond to your first-level appeal, you should contact them and let them know that the citation should automatically be dismissed, and if it’s not, you’ll raise the argument in your second-level appeal. Most CCLD employees are terrified of having their mistakes pointed out to their supervisors, so the Regional Manager may just dismiss your citation. If they don’t though, you should argue in your second-level appeal that the citation should automatically be dismissed because the Regional Manager’s decision was “untimely.” (My Licensing Appeal Kit includes a pre-written argument that you can directly copy-and-paste.)
If the Program Administrator denies your second-level appeal (or if they’re the one that misses their deadline to respond), there’s a third level level of appeal that CCLD doesn’t tell providers about. This appeal, however, typically requires the assistance of a lawyer.
Get the Licensing Appeal Kit.
Researched & written by a lawyer and preschool owner, for childcare providers.
As a lawyer in private practice, clients used to pay $575 per hour for my time and effort. The guides, templates, research, and real-world appeals in my Licensing Appeal Kit represents over 300 hours of research and work on my part, which I’m making available to every childcare provider in California for the cost of a few children’s books. And for a limited number of providers, I’m offering the Licensing Appeal Kit and a 1-hour consultation with me to talk over any licensing issues whenever they need.
The Licensing Appeal Kit
What you get: