Jesse Hunt died January 14, 1994
THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS NO LONGER IN CAMIS
(Children's Administration Management Information System) and also not in the newest DSHS computer system FamLink)
This former provider (Edith Goetz) and any of the family members could again apply for a license. The computer system which licensors would search to look for CPS history, the history on this daycare home is GONE.
Edith and Dean Goetz were licensed for almost three years. They had teenage daughters.
The legislature passed a law (RCW 43.215.370) in 2007 that to date the Department of Early Learning (DEL) refuses to comply with and reporting this violation of the law to Dr. Betty Hyde, director of DEL, Bob Hamilton, Deputy Director of DEL, Amy Blondin, Communications Manager of DEL, State Auditor Brian Sonntag, Attorney General, Rob McKenna and Governor Christine Gregoire and a number of Senators and Representatives in April 2010 (now a year ago) has resulted in NOTHING BEING DONE to require DEL to comply.
Why has no action been taken against these unelected government manager bureaucrats for not posting revocation action against licensed facilities that put children in harm’s way or actually hurt them; and in some cases killed them?
Below is some of the history of the home where 7 month old Jessie Hunt was in before his death. His mom was never told any of this history and only learned it after her son was dead.
Dear parents, Jessie’s mom went through Child Care Resource and Referral. Child Care Resource and Referral gets good money from you, the taxpayer and they get NO INFORMATION ON THE LICENSING HISTORY of the list of homes or centers they then give to you.
A reasonable person would have revoked the Goetz license in 1991 and Jessie would never have been in that home in 1994. A reasonable person would have been shocked and horrified and revoked the license.
Edith Goetz was first licensed March 1991 for six. After contacting licensing that they needed more money the state let them go to eight the very next month. By June the first very serious CPS concerns were reported, two separate reports:
• Provider kicked her step daughter who had bruising.
• Step daughter described provider hitting her in the head and back with her hand and a belt.
• Another daughter the same day reported that the provider, also, kicked her.
• This daughter asked to be placed in protective custody
• So what did licensing do? They up the provider's capacity to 10, then to 12 by December 1991.
•
On November 20, 1991, Debby Brown, licensor sent a letter to the provider's counselor with the following information:
"I find Mrs. Goetz to be a somewhat overbearing, controlling person. She tends to wants things her way, sometimes overly stern with Day Care kids. She is trying hard to be professional in her day care and provide good activities. I regret that my caseload does not allow me more time to observe her interactions with the children more extensively.
Ellyn Turner related that she tends to be rigid and denying. She evaluates the family as dysfunctional, stressed, rigid and little warmth.
Both kids are extremely unhappy and appear frightened. They describe verbal abuse and (name redacted) is still being hit. (Name redacted) says that Mrs. Goetz hit Day Care kids. They have low self esteem and have heads down around their mom. Ellen feels that there is corporal punishment being used.
Mr. Goetz is quiet and asked for help in anger control. I have never met him.
Mrs. Goetz refused home builders services, said she didn't need help and that she already uses the skills. The hold has been lifted from the home.
My supervisor and I are leaning toward raising the licensing capacity to 10 but not 12 at this time. Later next year, possible reevaluate and raise to 12 after we give the family some time to deal with their functioning problems. Mrs. Goetz is not satisfied with these acts and is being very pushy for 12. We are recognizing the fact that allowing her to have more than 8 will giver her better income so that she can have an assistant who says she is a support to her. With no assistant, I can recognize she will be under more stress.
More CPS complaints and licensing complaints came in:
May 1992 - One of the provider's daughters was observed by a day care parent to shake a baby violently. The provider took the baby away from the daughter and started hitting the daughter.
June 1992 - A daughter reports afraid of being hit by the provider and her husband. The daughter lost a volunteer job for use of inappropriate sexual language with children.
December 1992 - A daughter reports being yelled at and having her hair pulled by the provider's husband; and that he hit her with the handle of a hammer.
April 1993 - A daughter reports fear of going home to the provider and her husband. CPS places the daughter in a receiving foster care home.
May 1993 - A former assistant reports the provider hitting day care children over and over again." The assistant further reported the provider gave medicine to drug the babies to sleep and she had seen the provider slap, punch, and kick her children. The assistant also witnessed one daughter throw a knife at the other daughter.
August 1993 - licensor Judy Becker wrote the provider a letter stating:
"Generally, the referrals describe your discipline of your children as angry and harsh, including kicking, hitting with hands and fists on heads, arms, shoulders, slamming (name redacted) against the wall and causing and injury after she talked to CPS, and saying mean and degrading thing to the children. The referrals come from very different sources, so it is not just one person who might b wanting to cause you trouble. The last one indicated that you might be spanking the every little day care children as well.
We do not live in your home and cannot determine exactly the nature of your discipline and negative effects on your children. However, referrals to Child Protective Services in two years, saying basically the same thing, and from different sources is indicative of serious problems. Since you rely on day care for much of your income, you cannot further jeopardize your license by having more referrals. You must understand the necessity of following exactly all the day care regulations, especially regarding the serious matter of discipline and medication....In addition, your discipline methods with your own children do impact the day care and will impact your license. Even if it only happens once or twice a year, losing your temper to the point of hitting or kicking them or leaving marks or bruises is clearly unacceptable."
November 1993 - CPS complaint from a day care mom that both she and her son witnessed the provider hitting day care children.
January 14, 1994: Jesse Hunt died. Doctors suspected shaken baby, suffocation or strangling. Jesse was almost eight months old.
Licensing failed to conduct an investigation on any of the complaints, only sending a wagging finger admonishment letter to the provider.
The state still did not take any legal action until May 16, 1994 four months after Jesse Hunt died. The legal action cited all the complaints made to the state that were never investigated as the reason for not renewing her license.
The licensing managers remain in this 1994 mind set in this author’s observations, expertise and opinion in their failure to see to the health, safety and well-being of the child in licensed care.
In 1994 after the licensed foster family Manson home where 4 babies died (one a day care child) an outside committee conducted a child death review and as result of that review in 1995 the legislature clarified by strengthening the law for DSHS managers to conduct oversight for the protection of children which comes first (RCW 74.15, “intent”).
Judy Becker one of the licensors of the Goetz family home day care is now a supervisor for DEL out of the Tacoma Office.
This author likes Judy Becker very much. We served on the Statewide Customer Service Committee together one year. We had many laughs together. We worked in the same region. It saddened me to come across this information. When I saw the disconnect coming from Judy in her oversight over this home I was shocked. How could a kind, smiling person like Judy Becker not see?
Homebuilders mentioned in this article? Homebuilders was a contracted program that CPS used as a last resort on a private family who had serious risk issues to the family’s children. If a family refused Homebuilders typically the next step would have been removal of the children from the home either by the police or a Court order.
Unelected bureaucratic managers are not accountable to you, the citizen of Washington State. I tell and expose some of these stories to give parents a more complete picture of the state of child care licensing.
There are some excellent child care providers out there. I had some on my caseload as a licensor. Perhaps one of them will write a guest blog and tell the things they saw from being in the provider community.
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