What is a Licensed Exempt Home Provider?

[jeffpas]

We have an agency called DHS in Illinois, (Department of Human Services). Someone who has applied to rent an apartment from us, said they 'work for the State as a daycare provider'. They showed up with 3 screaming, and I mean terror kids. They were climbing the walls. The woman looked so exhausted I thought she might pass out. She said they were her grandkids, and no worries she just had them for the night.

At any rate, she gave us a check stub to show employer and there are 3 names on the stub- it looks like the first names of 3 children.
I started calling DHS numbers to verify her employment, and spent half a day getting nothing but voice mailboxes- I could reach nobody at that agency. Not a human anywhere.
I finally after hours found an automated line, and entered her information, confirming her job title at least, matching her check stub: "Licensed Exempt Home Provider".

My fear is these kids aren't her grandkids as she claims, but they're her charges she's getting paid to watch in-the-home. And the apartment she wants to rent, will be her "Romper Room".
Can anyone help figure this out? Thanks would much appreciate.

[sahm1225]

A licensed exempt provider is someone who watches 3 or less kids in their home. The kids could be related to you but they don’t have to be. I’m not sure what you mean by romper room.

Can you just ask her where she works? To me, it sounds like she’s an in home exempt provider. BUT she could also be watching kids at the persons home (usually that’s not the case though)

[Pestle]

DHS is the regulating agency, not the employer. Home daycare providers are self-employed.

"License Exempt" means she's not providing care at the level that kicks in the requirement for a license. For instance, I'm an unlicensed home daycare provider; in my state, that means I can keep up to 4 kids, and only 2 can be under 24 months.

So if she's keeping her three grandkids, she's not providing daycare that the state sees as needing their oversight.

It wouldn't be a "romper room." It's only legal to provide home daycare out of your own home. (You still have to operate legally when you don't have a license.) There's no way her kids are paying her enough to cover a second home, anyway. So it would be her home, furnished and occupied by her own self, and there would be several hours per day when children are present.

You need to research state law and local building code and study your lease to find out whether you can refuse to rent on the basis that she's a home daycare provider.

Also consider asking her to get on the phone or come in for a face-to-face conversation about it. You can get a better feel for what to expect from her. In most cases, there shouldn't be any more noise or wear and tear than you can expect from renting to any family, and there shouldn't be an issue with traffic or parking because, again, it's a very small group and chances are they have only one or two parents doing the drop off and pick up. In most cases, care providers have their own liability insurance, but this sounds like an informal family arrangement, so you can ask about that, too, and you can find out whether your own insurance already covers having her program in your building.

[jeffpas]

No, DHS is her employer. She brought actual check stubs from them, showing payments from DHS. And her job title is exactly that: Licensed Exempt Home Provider.
What I'm trying to determine is if her actual day job is to watch kids in her HOME, aka, that would be the apartment. If that's the case, then she straight up lied- because she said they were her grandkids, and she would only have them over "once a week". She said it would only be her and 1 child in the apartment. There are the names of three people, apparently children, with amounts on the pay stub, as if it were a per diem. I can't reach anyone at DHS at all so far, I called and navigated their phone maze for hours today.

The situation appears to be that she is doing this now at a relatives house, and tensions are extremely high for some reason. In fact she put down cash for the deposit when she came to see the apartment, then demanded to have the keys that very night! Then said, "Never mind, I want my money back" after I had to drive to the office to print her lease, and told her we needed electrical transfered the next day before possession, as is standard and required. Good lord, the power company wasn't even open!
She was literally sitting in a van outside the apartment, with the 3 yelling kids, saying "I'll sit here until you come back with the lease." Very strange.

Finally, after I drove all the way back she said, "Hold the deposit, I want the apartment", and consented to go home while we checked her application. I have no idea what the tremendous hurry is, but I told her we need a full application and background check. On the application for her current address she put her family's house, after Dates lived at Address she wrote: "Today I pray." ???

I'm worried about a few things. Not the least of them the busy street out front, with these wild kids running around. Also I have very tempermental tenants upstairs, who don't like loud noises and a tenant in the adjoining apartment who wants quiet too. Its not unreasonable to imagine a zoo full of kids driving out the good tenants that are already in the building.
If you're worried about this woman and her group of (hired?) children having a legal right to any place she likes, and you have a room- please, give me your address and I'll send them your way to have a look at yours..... she may like it better!

[jeffpas]

Yeah they were yelling so loudly I could hardly hear her speak on the phone, every time that night. And another tenant texted me and said they could hear the kids in the van. I told her, "The tenants in this building are not going to like it if you have kids over here yelling like this." Her reply was, "They're not normally this bad" and "its just going to be me and my granddaughter here. The others, only once a week."

I don't know about you, but when a landlord hears a tenant say, "once a week", that typically means all the time.
Believe me I'd love this to work, but I'm trying to be realistic and figure out just what I'm getting into.
I don't mean to be pessimistic, just speaking from hard lessons lol

[jeffpas]

Perhaps this all was a chance event, and her grandkids came along for the ride and they were extra rowdy as she says.
But if its actually her job to watch problem(?) kids in her home as a Home Provider by the hour, assumedly 40 days a week or probably more.... it seems to suggest otherwise.
I think it all boils down to what exactly the job is she has. I can't seem to find confirmation anywhere.

[sahm1225]

DHS is NOT her employer. She gets paid from the state for providing childcare. The families apply for the state subsidy and she watches the kids, then she submits the attendance records monthly.

From what you’ve already said, my only thought would be NEXT.

It IS possible that she gets paid to watch her grandkids and does it out of their house. In Illinois, the landlord had to actually approve the running of a daycare in the rental unit.

If you want to work with the tenant. Then call her and ask her WHERE she works.

[Cat Herder]

DHS is not her employer. Those would be subsidy payments for kids who qualify or reimbursement checks for meals served to kids who qualify (low income). She is self-employed and will be taxed as such.

License exempt simply means she is legally unlicensed to care for children in her home. However, each move to a new home requires re-applying for inspection and approval.

[sahm1225]

Originally Posted by Cat Herder

DHS is not her employer. Those would be subsidy payments for kids who qualify or reimbursement checks for meals served to kids who qualify (low income). She is self-employed and will be taxed as such.

License exempt simply means she is legally unlicensed to care for children in her home. However, each move to a new home requires re-applying for inspection and approval.

If she’s exempt, she doesn’t have to apply for re inspection in Illinois. You’re not under any guidelines or rules when you’re exempt.

[Cat Herder]

Originally Posted by sahm1225

If she’s exempt, she doesn’t have to apply for re inspection in Illinois. You’re not under any guidelines or rules when you’re exempt.

Even to care for subsidy kids? My understanding was that a fire and health dept. inspection was required.

Interesting. Thanks.

[LysesKids]

Originally Posted by Cat Herder

Even to care for subsidy kids? My understanding was that a fire and health dept. inspection was required.

Interesting. Thanks.

I never had health or fire inspection in IL for subsidy... I took only 3 kids under 2 years (licensed exempt) AND, I lived in section 8 housing at the time with my DD . I stopped taking vouchers in 2009 when IL got behind over 6 months paying providers

[Cat Herder]

Originally Posted by LysesKids

I never had health or fire inspection in IL for subsidy... I took only 3 kids under 2 years (licensed exempt) AND, I lived in section 8 housing at the time with my DD . I stopped taking vouchers in 2009 when IL got behind over 6 months paying providers

Very interesting. Thanks.

I also was shorted 3 months of pay, almost lost my home to subsidy program mismanagement once upon a time. Never again will I depend on them or the food program.