The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) is the State Education Agency for the District of Columbia charged with raising the quality of education for all DC residents. OSSE is focused on sustaining, accelerating, and deepening the progress being made for the District’s 90,000+ students. OSSE serves as the District’s liaison to the U.S. Department of Education and works closely with the District’s 470+ early childhood facilities, 250+ schools, 60+ local education agencies (including DCPS and charter organizations), and community-based organizations to provide critical programming and resources to our stakeholders. 

The mission of the Division of Early Learning (DEL) is to provide leadership and coordination to ensure that all District of Columbia children, from birth to kindergarten entrance, have access to high quality early childhood development programs and are well prepared for school.   

The Child Care Program Specialist will be responsible for the inspection and licensing of child care facilities including, but not limited to, child development centers, homes, and before and after school care facilities. They will perform in-depth assessments of child care facilities to determine if services provided are in compliance with all legal mandates for purposes of licensure and/or certification. They will be responsible for reviewing pertinent documentation, records, and all files to determine if services, environmental conditions, and programmatic operations of child care facilities are consistent with Federal and District requirements. 

Specific functions of the Child Care Program Specialist: 

• Conducts in-depth inspections of assigned child care facilities to determine if services provided are in compliance with all legal mandates for purposes of licensure and/or certification.
• Reviews documentation of records and files, to determine if services, environmental conditions, and programmatic operations are in compliance with all governing legal mandates. 
• Identifies and cites violations of deficiencies with accompanying recommendations for corrective actions by supervisor, program manager, or higher level(s) of authority.
• Evaluates policies and procedures, staffing patterns, staff credentials, and records of customers' and consultants' facilities reports for program effectiveness and quality of services rendered.
• Prepares detailed official reports of all inspections, unusual incident reports, and complaint investigation activities and record data in the system of record. 
• Provides technical assistance and consultation to prospective and licensed providers for the planning, organization, and operation of child care facilities consistent with Federal and District of Columbia requirements.
• Reviews and maintains staff records in licensing system.
• Reviews applications for licenses and assists providers and applicants to submit complete applications for licenses with required documents. 
• Provides technical assistance to child care providers on licensing and inspection requirements. 
• Consults with prospective applicants for child care licenses on application requirements.
• Supports request for provider access and provider-reported issues related to the child care licensing database system. 
• Assist other divisions with licensing related inquiries. 

Key qualifications for the role include:

• Graduation from an accredited four-year college or university with a relevant bachelor's degree and 
• at least four (4) years of relevant work experience that demonstrate knowledge of the specialized subject area of the position, at least one year of which must be equivalent to the CS- 12 grade level in the District of Columbia government service; or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience. 
• Detailed oriented with the ability to digitally collect, and organize files
• Research, organize, track and prepared detailed monthly reports
• Excellent written and oral communication skills 
• Excellent ability to use Microsoft Office (specifically Excel)
• Excellent problem solving, planning and strategic thinking skills
• Demonstrate the ability to evaluate current operational procedures and make recommendations to system improvement 

Our ideal candidate will also have:

• Exceptional interpersonal skills 
• Works well on team projects and in fast past environments 

Interested applicants should register for the OSSE Hiring Fair.