Section 38-7-9

License to operate or conduct child-care facility — Revocation or refusal to renew license — Aggrieved party entitled to hearing; review of final decision or action of department; bond; when decision may be set aside; section not applicable to boarding homes and free homes.

In the event a party or an applicant for a license or a licensee is denied a license or a renewal of a license or has a license suspended or revoked for the operation of a child-care facility required by this chapter to be licensed by the department, or in the event an application for such a license or renewal of a license is not acted upon with reasonable promptness, or in the event an approval required by this chapter to be issued by the department is denied or revoked or unduly delayed, any aggrieved party may appeal to the department for a fair hearing of his case. Notice and opportunity for a fair hearing and notice of right to counsel shall be given the appellant by the department, and at this hearing any party at interest may appear and present any relevant facts. The decision or action of the department on any fair hearing on any such appeal shall be final and binding and shall be complied with.

Any party aggrieved by a final decision or action of the department refusing to grant or to issue, or suspending or revoking a license or an approval for the operation of any child-care facility required by law to be licensed or approved by the department is entitled to a review of such final decision or action by filing a complaint with the circuit court in the county in which the child-care facility is located or in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County, Alabama. All such complaints shall be filed within 30 days from the date of such final decision or action, and a review shall be granted as a matter of right upon the filing with the department of a bond for security of costs of said review and upon filing said complaint both with the register or clerk of the circuit court, as designated hereinabove, and with the department. The court may set aside the final decision of the department only upon a finding of the court that such final decision was illegal, capricious or unsupported by the evidence. Upon motion of either party or upon its own motion the court may at its discretion take additional evidence. The provisions of this section shall not apply to boarding homes and free homes as defined in this chapter.

(Acts 1971, 3rd Ex. Sess., No. 174, p. 4423, §9.)