SPECIAL REPORT PART I: Digging Into Daycare Safety

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By Chelsea Kopta

Summary

Are dangerous daycares putting your kids at risk? Action News compiled five year's worth of inspection records for every day care complaint in Benton, Franklin and Walla Walla Counties. And what we found was startling. Dozens of daycares have trouble complying with even the most basic rules designed to keep your kids safe.

Story Published: May 14, 2009 at 6:39 PM PST

TRI CITIES -- When you drop your kids off in the morning, you're putting your trust in the daycare. But do you know what's going on once you leave?

Action News does. And you should, too.

Action News reporter Chelsea Kopta pulled records from the Department of Early Learning (DEL), tracked hundreds of complaints in Benton, Franklin and Walla Walla counties, and investigated only the valid findings. I then narrowed my search down to a handful of daycares seemingly riddled with problems.

"How many daycares are complying with basic standards and how many are not?" I asked DEL licensors.

"Well I don't have raw numbers for you but at some level they're all complying because if the Department found they weren't complying with any of the rules we would need to take action," Debbie O'Neil said, Assistant Service Area Manager for the Department of Early Learning in Eastern Washington.

And DEL has taken action. O'Neil's a state licensor who inspects daycares like Alejandra Perez. She was a home day care provider in Pasco. She had only six complaints. But each complaint can raise concerns about several issues like nurture and care, nutrition, and discipline.

In those six complaints, Perez racked up 66 issues.

"Why are there so many complaints," I asked.

"Those complaints are not too bad, they all come from a licensor," Perez said with the help of a Spanish-speaking interpreter. "Any provider would have those complaints."

Perez blames the complaints on a system that she says is unrealistically strict. Plus, she says she has letters that confirm parents trust her with kids. But DEL reports that Perez repeatedly violated serious state codes. In a Revocation Recommendation report, licensors said a tricycle was left out with rusty chains; needles, scissors and pins were exposed; and diapers and dirty laundry laid out in the open. And that's not the worst of it.

Child Protective Services (CPS) investigated a complaint alleging a toddler got scratches or puncture wounds near his genitals, that Perez's husband kicked the toddler's sibling, and put hot sauce on his tongue. In another instance, a complaint alleged Perez's husband dragged a child into the basement and forced the child to eat food off the floor.

"I'm just going to be blunt, did you or your husband abuse any of these kids?" I asked Mrs. Perez.
"No, none of them," she said.

"So this is a safe daycare?" I asked.
"Yes."

Child Protective Services ruled those claims were inconclusive; they couldn't prove it one way or the other. But DEL took action anyway, suspending and revoking her license. Perez can still reapply.

In some cases, the numbers and the complaints speak for themselves. But not always.

"So what you're saying is that numbers don't tell the whole story necessarily?"
"That's correct," O'Neil said.

"While the number itself looks large, the actual reality is the valid complaints - you know, there's only a handful of valid complaints," Kids World Childcare provider Ginger Still said.

Kids World childcare in Richland has three serious complaints, totaling 17 related issues. One report shows workers fed tomato-based food to a boy with a severe tomato allergies.

"Did you make a mistake?" I asked Still.
"Instead of using tomatoes it was a barbeque-base, which is still tomatoes so it was one that got by us so, yeah that was a mistake we made," she said.

Another report alleges workers used methamphetamine and marijuana at the daycare. Still's workers were drug-tested. One passed, one failed. "The one that failed was terminated," she said. No one's tested positive since.

A third complaint called a worker's discipline into question when she grabbed a kid. "She didn't physically hurt a child but her actions were definitely inappropriate and that's just something we don't stand for."

"How safe are the kids here? Are they safe?" I asked.
"I think the kids are very safe here. we work hard everyday to make sure that the children have a clean, safe, health environment to be in. But does that mean that we're perfect? Absolutely not, because there is no child care center that's perfect."

And for every complaint, Still has taken appropriate action to rectify the problem and stay in good standing with the state.

Providers may be good people. But the complaints can reveal a lot about how they take care of kids. And The bottom line is, it's up to you to decide who takes care of them. So start asking questions for the people you care about the most.

You can find out all of this information online. We'll tell you more about that and give you an inside look at corporate daycares like Kindercare. That's in part two of the Digging into Daycare Safety series on Friday.