Thursday, December 28, 2017

Child Care Aware? Child Care Unaware? Child Care Beware - Oregon & Washington State

The pattern across the United States is similar to the recent article which came about because two babies died in a day care center in Portland, Oregon.  The last death that mom went above and beyond, contacting every government agency and contract government agency to dig up any information that was on the Broadway Children's Center. 

The legislature in Washington State worked on and off for years regarding the issue of giving parents nothing more than public records. Those efforts like in 2007 were brushed off from the Department of Early Learning's (DEL) shoulder like a pesky fly. Impotent. The attorney general's office advised the law was a "shall".  DEL did not care. When pushed by me and legislator representative Ross Hunter, it was that DEL could not do it until they got millions of dollars for a new computer system.   DEL did not care.

I got a copy of the records on put the information on my website.  Cost to give parents the most compelling information?  Nothing.  Time spent to upload and edit?  About 6 hours. 

DEL said they needed millions to obey a law that was a "shall".  

Oregon in this article is making the same excuse.  Oregon's management of the licensing agency is worse than even Washington State which is terrible.  2014 in Washington State like this mom's horror it came uncovered when a second baby died in a day care facility there.  Then finally that license was revoked.

As a licensor for thirteen years as I saw over and over the failures of licensing and before I went outside the internal whistle blowing system to the public directly via KING 5 News and testifying to the legislature I told parents to trust their gut feelings.  Interview the provider. Any reaction on their part of anger or defensiveness to a question; or a feeling that they provider was controlling them from asking questions as well as how do the children look; over 70% of communication is non-verbal thus if they got a bad read do not put their child in that day care.

The corruption in so many states and so many state governments; and so many regulatory licensing agencies after decades went so far beyond the Pale that the American people wanted an outlier for president; and one of them won. 

It is time to hold these corrupt and/or incompetent/lazy government managers to account.

From the article:

"Oregon regulators are responsible for licensing and monitoring day cares with four or more children. But they've shown little urgency over the years responding to serious injuries at licensed facilities and have failed to alert parents to known concerns, a review by The Oregonian/OregonLive has found. Among the shortcomings:
  • Over the past decade, a child was seriously injured at an Oregon day care every 43 hours, on average, according to state data analyzed by the newsroom. That's six deaths and 2,022 serious injuries, excluding seizures, reported between 2007 and 2016. When the state's early childhood policy board recently discussed annual injury figures, one official said simply, "Wow."
  • Regulators acknowledged in interviews that until very recently, they hardly ever visited day cares in response to a reported injury. The state's website for childcare consumers displays none of the injury data for parents looking to evaluate individual facilities.
  • Oregon officials concluded that children were abused or neglected at 51 day cares between 2012 and 2016, according to state documents obtained through public records requests. None of those substantiated findings of abuse or neglect show up for parents to view on the state's childcare website.
  • The state also found 97 childcare providers since 2007 who defrauded the government out of $834,000 in subsidies intended for low-income working families, other state records show. The fraud determination did not end those operators' eligibility to provide childcare, and none of the fraud findings is shown online for parents.
  • State officials don't always notify families when taking steps to close a day care. In one case, regulators tried to shut down an in-home facility after the owner admitted to illegal drug use, documents reveal. But kids kept attending the facility this year because state officials never told parents it was no longer licensed."
  • Copy into your browser to read entire article:

  • http://www.oregonlive.com/watchdog/index.ssf/2017/12/childcare_in_oregon_state_webs.html

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

"My mother runs a day care and abuses the kids."

Stefan Molyneux has good shows about life and takes the time to delve into the issues.  

The young man in this one, his mom runs a day care.  His mom insults the children, mocks them, hits them, is impatient, mocks them if the children cry...

Take a listen. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMpFuMuzOqo

Friday, June 23, 2017

DSHS DEL Child Day Care licensing Agency pays out $1.87 million to Four day care Kids in Washington State

As the expert witness on this case that had been in litigation for five years, the Department of Early Learning (DEL) in Washington State offered to settle with these children about two weeks after the Attorney General's Office deposed me.

I give props to Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala PLLC law firm for their proper conduct in the handling of this case that resulted in telling the complete story of the failure of DEL in its licensing of the All Hours family home child day care in Marysville, Washington which resulted in the sunlight shining down like a laser spotlight on the failures of DEL managers in overseeing and managing child day care licensing.

As a former Department of Social & Health Services (DSHS) investigator of child abuse then a day care licensor for thirteen years as well as being a whistle blower intermittently through those years; when I went public on King 5 News in November, 2004 DSHS after a protracted time,  DSHS dismissed me then within six months an attorney looking for an "expert in day care" found me; and off I went on my new career again keeping to my purpose the protection of children and the health and safety of the public through the work I've done for the last eleven years.

People throughout the last eleven years from time to time when I've shown up for depositions asked me, "Are you the attorney?"  Like Erin Brockavich I say similarly, "Hell, no, I hate attorneys." With my new career as an expert witness some of my epiphanies about the legal profession have in part been slow in coming because I believe the best about people.

As law firms were not prevailing or only prevailing a bit, I was at a loss to know why (as experts we are not kept in the loop so to speak which is proper) and because in my thirteen year career in government I had never lost an enforcement action, in 2014 I was not going to do this career any more.  I decided the next attorney who called me that I was going to yell at them.  An attorney from Texas made that call to me. I told him no holds barred what I thought of attorneys.  Ha, ha, ha then he told me no holds barred what he thought of expert witnesses.  We were on the same page.  He sent me a relatively small amount of documents.  I reviewed them; called him and said, this, that, this and he said, "Stop! I would never have thought of that.  Will you write out my deposition questions?"  The other side settled quickly after that.

That seemed to bring in the some good energy and now attorneys who have integrity have contacted me; and my success rate (theirs really for doing proper attorney stuff) has moved in the direction of starting to rival my success when I was inside that government regulatory enforcement agency (DSHS now known as DEL).

With this case the law firm properly said, basically, to me, "Here are the documents, apply your knowledge and expertise and write a declaration for the case."  My expertise comes in part not only from having done day care licensing for thirteen years, but in the years since by making a plethora of public disclosure requests my files are filled with copies of documents which tell the story clearly, compellingly and cogently. In addition, when the assistant attorney general (AAG) at the deposition asked how I got trained in part I was able to say to him the Washington State Attorney General's Office trained me.

It is an odd juxtaposition for me to sit across the conference table from an AAG explaining to him the laws and regulations that his office trained me on repeatedly over my thirteen years with licensing.

I give parents who stand up for their children kudos. It is a monumental act to even contact DEL and bring up a concern a parent witnessed in child day care. DEL has a history of protecting day care providers who per RCW & WAC, their licenses were a MUST to have never been issued or they were a MUST to have been revoked. The DEL website CHILD CARE CHECK page just recently after ten years made a change.  Yes, I said TEN YEARS. Ten years after the legislature passed a law in 2007 that was a "SHALL" to post information to the public as to licenses DEL revoked (going back to when they were DSHS) on CHILD CARE CHECK not only did DEL not do it for ten years some of the few names that had been on there DEL removed including Edith Goetz where seven month old Jesse Hunt in 1994 died as a result of having been shaken.  Sweet Jesse is on the cover of my book, "DSHS Secrets" that I wrote and published December 31, 2012.  His mother, Michelle Hunt (she wrote the introduction to my book) and I wanted his sweet face to be out there to the world so he will be seen and remembered.

A month and a half after DEL settled with these four kids a child care center asked me to come out and consult with them about what the heck DEL was doing in marking so many items as a violation when in years past DEL had NOT done so.  Looking over her "Facility Licensing Compliance Agreement" form I was able to advise her that most of the violations marked all referred back to lawsuits that parents had brought because their child had been injured, maimed or made dead in licensed day care in Washington State. Once she understood the history, the center owner got promptly to making the corrections while I was still there touring her facility.  I liked her center.  All the little ones in all the rooms were happy calm children, bright eyed and engaged with the world. They looked well care for and clean.  It made my heart happy to see children who were happy because in my thirteen years I saw so many traumatized children in day care homes where my managers would not take action to protect children by taking the providers' licenses.

This center director was able to update me as well that the supervisor I had who I made a plethora of whistle blower reports on that never got fully investigated left the agency abruptly with no fanfare or goodbye celebration. Sounded like about a month after DEL settled with these four kids.

A couple of months after DEL settled with these four kids DEL finally posted per the requirements of RCW 43.215.370.  Ten years.  I have 2007 emails from the Attorney General's Office to DEL advising DEL the law was a "SHALL" and DEL must do it.  DEL for ten years basically flipped off the Attorney General's Office.  Ten years.  What hubris by the unelected government agency bureaucratic managers.  Ten years.

Ross Hunter, the now director of DEL as a state representative tried valiantly to get the State Auditor to complete my whistle blower reports.  As well Mr. Hunter wrote a heroic letter to push for an investigation and/or audit as to why DEL was not conducting proper investigations of applicants and others associated with a day care home.  He had the documentation I submitted to the State Auditor that he wrote and called "...the tip of the iceberg...".

When I read the depositions on this case licensors and supervisors essentially were turning on each other, kind of not my job or they indicated it was the attorney general's office fault. One supervisor eleven years, yes ELEVEN years after DEL was created under RCW 43.215 still thought and testified that DEL licensed under RCW 74.15. 

I stopped by Olympia headquarters of DEL on Monday, June 19, 2017 to see if I could catch up with Mr. Hunter. I did not, but hope to in the near future have lunch with him and offer my skills and expertise to assist Ross in proceeding in the direction he had analyzed accurately; where he so genuinely had concerns and so heroically wrote that letter that put the health, safety and well being of the child in care first. 

http://q13fox.com/2017/03/21/state-to-pay-1-87-million-to-4-children-sexually-abused-at-day-care/