A Pierce County couple who sold bogus continuing education trainings and certificates to hundreds of adult family home employees have been sued by the Attorney General’s Office.

In the case filed by the AGO, Dennis and Jennifer Lalander are accused of violating the state Consumer Protection Act by selling “home study” packets and pre-signed certificates of completion, which they claimed would satisfy employees’ continuing education requirements.

“This company preyed on hundreds of care providers for vulnerable adults and endangered some adult family homes’ ability to operate,” Attorney General Bob Ferguson said. “I will not tolerate these deceptive business practices.”

In Washington, all adult family home employees must complete 12 hours of Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) approved continuing education (CE) per year.  An adult family home that employs any person who has not completed the required CE risks losing its license to operate.

The Lalanders began operating their company, Adult Family Home Training, in 2012, but were never authorized by DSHS to provide continuing education.

The Lalanders had a simple business model.  They kept records of when individual adult family home employees needed to update their CE with DSHS. When the deadline loomed, the Lalanders phoned the employee or their manager and offered to sell a training packet and pre-signed certificate of completion. The Lalanders represented that the purchase of their materials satisfied DSHS’s CE requirement. However, when adult family home managers or employees tried to submit the certificates to DSHS, they discovered the certificates were invalid.

The packets were sold at $72 for the full 12-hour certification, or $8 per credit hour for fewer than 12 hours. The Lalanders told AGO investigators they sold five to ten training packets per week until they stopped offering them at the end of 2013. The AGO believes hundreds of employees bought these bogus certificates.

The AGO seeks to make the defendants repay affected consumers, a permanent injunction preventing the Lalanders from any future involvement with any entity selling or providing adult family home CE materials, along with civil penalties up to $2,000 per violation.