This letter transmits amended rules and a revised form to be used by child care centers and type A homes. The changes to the rules and form are a result of the agency's improvements to the computer system that collects the data from the incident reports. Changes have been made to the prescribed form referenced in this letter, which is intended to assist providers in meeting the requirements of the rule in Chapters 5101:2-12 and 5101:2-13 of the Administrative Code. Effective June 1, 2007 the prescribed form that is contained in this letter is the only incident report form that should be used by child care centers and type A homes.

The following is a summary of the rule revisions:

5101:2-12-35 and 5101:2-13-35 Incident/Injury Report. These rules have been amended to correct the revision date of the JFS 01299 "Incident/Injury Report".

The following form is included with this transmittal:

JFS 01299, "Incident/Injury Report for Child Care Centers, Type A Homes and Type B Providers" has been revised to remove all "other" categories and increase the choices for staff to indicate the type of incident/accident/injury.

This form will be available online in a PDF format. It may be downloaded and will be available to be completed electronically. The form may also be printed, copied and completed by hand. All previous versions of the JFS 01299 are obsolete as of June 1, 2007 and should be removed from the manual.

The electronic version of the Child Care Manual is located at: http://emanuals.jfs.ohio.gov.

The manual contains all rules, forms, transmittal letters and procedure letters that the department has issued to child care providers. A current version of this manual should be utilized by staff in all child care centers and type A homes that are licensed by the Department of Job and Family Services. A current and updated copy of the manual should be accessible at all times in the center or type A home.

Forms can be located at: http://www.odjfs.state.oh.us/forms/inter.asp. The department will notify all licensed centers and type A homes when forms are changed and the date of the change. When forms are obsolete they should no longer be used. The old version of this form should be removed and replaced with the new one. The use of current forms is necessary in order to be in compliance with child care licensing rules.

Please contact the Help Desk for the Office for Children and Families at 1-866-886-3537, option 4 if you have any questions.

INSTRUCTIONS: The following chart identifies the material that needs to be removed from and inserted into the Child Care Manual (CCM).