Department of Early Learning In Washington State Non-expiring Day Care Licenses

With the State of Washington having gone to non-expiring family home child day care licenses there should have been an increase in enforcement actions. No such announcement has been forthcoming from the Department of Early Learning to date.

The the non-actions may actually increase injury and deaths like from the article about  day care in Minnesota.  Weird stuff can go on behind private closed doors. 

There was one day care provider in Washington State who wouldn't allow parents into the home to drop off or get their children.  I caught her with eight over her capacity of twelve. She had no assistant and hid children upstairs in the closet.  The Department of Early managers would not revoke her license.

The article below quotes Washington State's day care manager Aimee Lapp Payne. Ms Payne  failed to disclose for the report the numerous times that Washington State regulators allowed poor and risky providers to keep their licenses

From the article: "The risk is that low standards result in low quality, said Aimee Lapp Payne, who wrote an influential 2011 report for the National Association for Regulatory Administration on child-care safety. "If it isn't a regulatory requirement, they aren't going to do it," she said."

Aimee should have said, "Even though it's a  requirement we too many times Washington State day care licensing didn't  take action,  not until children were injured,  maimed or killed."

http://www.startribune.com/local/162479246.html?page=2&c=y

Bottom line nothing in Washington State that I've witnessed at this time nor has Washington State shared any data to show that it is making a change at this time. 

With non-expiring licenses we may see a change towards what's happening in Minnesota increased injury, maiming, death and an increase in the department hiding information from the public to cover up those failures, 

Department of Early Learning in Washington State has History of Allowing Day Care Providers to have Too Many Children

This article from Minnesota shows on average eight children die in licensed child day care a year. There have been articles lately as well that state that previously deaths said to be SIDS may likely not have been SIDS but suffocation as happened to three month old Dane Abledinger in this article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2172651/Three-month-old-baby-dies-daycare-worker-face-heavy-blanket-floor-left-HOUR-months-girl-16-watch-children-got-hair-done.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
 
 Licensed under laws that require state agencies to protect children in day care these state agencies don't and this story is typical of keeping day care providers licensed violation after violation until a child dies then they revoke the license.

 As a licensor in Washington State when I witnessed six children being hidden in a closet and two babies each behind closed doors upstairs in a provider's (Connie King) unlicensed space the Department of Early Learning managers would not revoke the provider's license.  The provider was licensed for 12 and had 21 preschoolers in care with no assistant; and she wouldn't allow parents to come inside her house.

Another licensor found the same provider operating at over capacity a few days after I was there.  Then the supervisor, Darcy Taylor went out and found her not supervising the children.

The taxpayers give Darcy Taylor and other managers a good salary, health care benefits and retirement pensions while the managers do not operate the agency by law, laws that would keep children safe if they enforced the laws.

In addition the Department of Early Learning does not obey the public disclosure law so that parents can get information. The department's history of altering and destroying public records is a felony for which no high ranking state government official would prosecute. The Department of Early Learning's  record keeping is designed to hide information from the public as well.

The Department of Early Learning and the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) has been historically protected by the Attorney General's Office.  The Attorney General's Office has not been protecting the citizens of Washington State especially when it come to protecting children.

The Department of Early Learning's website is designed to give an illusion that licensing works but as long as the department has no transparency it will be business as usual and failures will continue to be covered up until another child dies. 

Parents shouldn't be forced to play Russian Roulette with their children's lives.

Department of Early Learning, Another Licensing Failure

http://www.king5.com/news/local/Marysville-teen-admits-daycare-crimes-161268135.html

This day care provider, Anne LaDale Moore,  ran 24 hours a day,  made $232,000.00, all paid by the taxpayers of Washington State all the while giving her son, Dakota Wilson, access to many children.

Now Dakota Wilson's violations against children won't identify him as a sex offender. Is this a story about the judicial system? The final failure in another taxpayer system?

 This is repeat behavior from his mom's day care in Idaho, three times he was investigated for sexually offending against children there.

The Department of Early Learning likely made no contact with Idaho in processing her getting a license here.

The pertinent information for the public and parents to know is they can't trust the department to do proper licensing or monitoring. There is no monitoring done before 8 a.m. or after 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.  There is no monitoring done on the weekends.

The Department of Early Learning website gives the illusion that licensing, monitoring and investigations are done properly, but that isn't the reality.

Child Care Resource and Referral now called Child Care Aware gets their funding from the state (via the Feds) and is again designed to give parents a false sense of security.

Child Care Resource and Referral now called Child Care Aware has NO access to the information that the state keeps on licensed day care facilities. You think when you call them, they are referring you to day care facilities that meet licensing regulations. They are not, they don't know.

Parents are in a difficult place in looking to keep their children safe in day care.