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.
Showing posts with label Child Deaths in Day Care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Child Deaths in Day Care. Show all posts
Friday, July 13, 2012
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Day Care Licensing Managers "If I Only Had a Brain"
KELOLAND.com | Parent: Day Care Provider Had Too Many Kids
As the Scarecrow sang in the Wizard of Oz, "If I only had a brain."
From the article on what state child day care licensing unelected bureaucratic managers had to say:
"We've spent a lot of time discussing that and we felt as if we made the right decision we made at the time," Sioux Falls Health Director Jill Franken said. Franken says when the city inspected the daycare there was no indication that any of the kids were in danger, she just had more children than the law allow."
Being overcapacity is a danger.
From the article:
"In-home day care providers can only watch 12 children in Sioux Falls, city citations show at one point she was caught watching 17 kids."
Too many children...danger.
Do state government unelected bureaucratic managers need a tornado to swirl them up and set them down in the Land of Oz to get a brain?
As the Scarecrow sang in the Wizard of Oz, "If I only had a brain."
From the article on what state child day care licensing unelected bureaucratic managers had to say:
"We've spent a lot of time discussing that and we felt as if we made the right decision we made at the time," Sioux Falls Health Director Jill Franken said. Franken says when the city inspected the daycare there was no indication that any of the kids were in danger, she just had more children than the law allow."
Being overcapacity is a danger.
From the article:
"In-home day care providers can only watch 12 children in Sioux Falls, city citations show at one point she was caught watching 17 kids."
Too many children...danger.
Do state government unelected bureaucratic managers need a tornado to swirl them up and set them down in the Land of Oz to get a brain?
"Day Care Provider of the Year" faces probe into infant's death
Sacramento 'child care provider of the year' faces probe into infant's death - Sacramento City News - sacbee.com
California licensing allowed "day care provider of the year" Sheila Caceres to settle rather than proceed with the revocation of her license.
From the news article:
What I've witnessed as a former day care licensor in Washington State is that as egregious violations piled up and children were maimed or even died that the state licensing agency moved to "settlements".
The real purpose of these "settlements" in some of the cases that I am aware and in my opinion were done to keep secret, failures of the state child day care licensing agency, managers their failure to license per law and regulation, their failure to monitor, their failure to investigate properly and their failure to take enforcement action.
Child day care licensing laws originally were passed to protect children. The Washington State law continues to have that language. I'm not aware of California's law.
From the article: "The state also alleged that she operated the facility over capacity and that at one point last year, Caceres "failed to notify the licensing office of an unusual incident in which a child wandered away from the facility and was found in the street."
State licensing agency managers have allowed folks operating at overcapacity, that don't have enough staff and use isolated areas of the home that are not licensed to continue caring for vulnerable children. In too many cases licensing managers after a child died, the state agency then took action to revoke a license.
In Washington State even though it's a law, the state licensing agency, the Department of Early Learning will not post the names of the licenses revoked. Some folks even after a death will go back to providing day care.
Maybe the Sacramento Bee could do an in depth investigation on California's licensing agencies to get a more full picture.
California licensing allowed "day care provider of the year" Sheila Caceres to settle rather than proceed with the revocation of her license.
From the news article:
"Days before the hearing this month, however, Caceres agreed to settle the matter without conceding any wrongdoing. On Sept. 9, the state ordered a lifetime ban on her operating a day care center. Morgan, her attorney, said it was simply too expensive for Caceres to fight the case."
The real purpose of these "settlements" in some of the cases that I am aware and in my opinion were done to keep secret, failures of the state child day care licensing agency, managers their failure to license per law and regulation, their failure to monitor, their failure to investigate properly and their failure to take enforcement action.
Child day care licensing laws originally were passed to protect children. The Washington State law continues to have that language. I'm not aware of California's law.
From the article: "The state also alleged that she operated the facility over capacity and that at one point last year, Caceres "failed to notify the licensing office of an unusual incident in which a child wandered away from the facility and was found in the street."
She was accused of leaving chemicals and medications accessible to children. And, the state alleged, that "on more than one occasion from approximately 2009 to 2010" she took a day care child with her to another home and "engaged in sexual activity in the presence of the child."
Licensing laws were passed to protect children.
In Washington State even though it's a law, the state licensing agency, the Department of Early Learning will not post the names of the licenses revoked. Some folks even after a death will go back to providing day care.
Maybe the Sacramento Bee could do an in depth investigation on California's licensing agencies to get a more full picture.
There was time in Washington State that the Attorney General's Office said revocation action is the only appropriate response to folks who put children at risk. Settlements were not done.
Monday, April 25, 2011
DSHS - Robin I. Johnson murdered 18 month old Charlotte Wetzel-Her Words to Day Care Licensing
When will DSHS and the Department of Early Learning (DEL) protect children in Washington State? The fingerprinting bill is making yet one more rounds through the legislature this 2011-2012 legislative session.
I thought I'd post this article and opinion piece I wrote back in April 2011 about what a day care provider who murdered a fourteen month old in her care wrote to DSHS with a suggestion how to figure out a person who had her instability and not license them.
Here's my article and opinion piece from April 2011:
A reader of the Tacoma Tribune wrote a comment:
"Do those who the state gives a license to not only get a background check but a physiological and take a polygraph test? If not they should. Who knows what lurks in the minds of those we let take care of our kids. I would like to know that everything possible was done to ensure that those taking care of our children were fully screened and tested before taking care of any child that comes under their care."
Robin Johnson killed 18 month old Charlotte Wetzel in 1998. Robin had stomped on Charlotte's stomach causing internal injuries. Robin had previously abused Charlotte as well as other little girls in her licensed day care. Robin was 33 at the time.
Robin wrote a letter to her former licensor with a suggestion on how to keep children safe from people like her.
The letter was received by DSHS on April 22, 1999. Four years before Robin's suggestion in 1995 the legislature strengthened the laws protecting the children in licensed day care.
The unelected government bureaucracy is so broken and has been for 2 decade. As a former licensor and current expert witness at a minimum I urge parents to become essentially your own detectives if you must use licensed care. If you use unlicensed care also be your own detective. Both for your peace of mind and the well-being of your child.
This author is fed up with the unelected government bureaucracy blaming parents.
You cannot trust state employees to follow the licensing laws consistently, in fact, evidence shows that laws enacted by the senators and representatives you elected to represent the health and safety of you as a citizen and of your child in regards to child safety are cavalierly ignored by state employees starting from the top managers on down through the middle managers and then to the supervisors.
Top ranking elected officials such as Governor Gregoire, Attorney General McKenna and State Auditor, Brian Sonntag at a minimum appear impotent to enforce the laws of the legislature. Why is that?
Robin I. Johnson took full responsibility for abusing and killing Charlotte in her 1999 letter. Robin gave the child care licensing agency a suggestion on how to better monitor and evaluate potential daycare providers before giving them a license. Robin wrote:
"The most important issue, which I feel very strongly about because of the serious, even life-threatening impact it can have on any home daycare. Again, I speak from an insight from personal experience on this issue; the catalyst which played a major role in my crime. There is a dire need for mental health evaluations for all home daycare applicants. According to WAC 388.155.180 providers are expected to to be of sound mental health, but this cannot be truly ensured without proper evaluation. Applicants are carefully screened to ensure the children are placed in a safe, well-prepared, and thoughtfully planned daycare environment, with the exception of an evaluation of the applicant's mental stability."
What Robin didn't know and parents aren't told is that her recommendation was all ready a "shall" under the law per RCW 74.15.030(3)to investigate each applicant for "character, competence and suitability". That law allowed and does allow the state today to direct an applicant and other member of the household to get a mental health evaluation on a determination that one is so needed to enforce the intent of the law which had been strengthened in 1995 by the legislature after 4 babies died in licensed foster care (one was a day care baby)in 1993 and 1994.
I reviewed the "home study" the licensor did on Robin Johnson. Those important questions were on the home study and the licensor did not ask them. Robin is right, she was praised for having her environment look good. There was about a 3 sentence write up regarding the home study.
I as a licensor (a social worker 3 who by experience and with a masters in social work) had the expertise to ask the questions to make an evaluation as to the capabilities of the applicant to care for children. I did so. Folks struggling with hidden shame or on shaky grounds around the issue of allowing such a person to be alone with small vulnerable children who avoided or refused to get the mental health assessments I required of them, with that non-compliance I moved and denied the license. In 1993 when I got my first day care provider caseload of 260 I was appalled at who had been allowed to continue providing care. One day care provider had been fined in court for "child endangerment" and was allowed to keep her license. At the next "bloodied" child complaint, I interviewed her and found her to be very depressed; and probably had been chronically depressed for some time. I revoked her license. Why had DSHS managers allowed her to stay licensed?
In the course of my DSHS career I witnessed the laws made by the legislature ignored. In or around 2004..2005 unelected bureaucratic managers were directing licensors not to investigate applicants per RCW 74.15.030(3)for "character, competence and suitability".
Robin had only worked in a daycare center for one month when she applied to take children into her own private home. With the little girls in her care she had "backhanded them" "pulled their hair" "pushing them down" "shaking, dropping, kicking, stomping" One child "had had an area of hair almost the circumference of a 'pop can' pulled from her head" "Robin had hit her with a white belt, spanking her until she fell down". Robin explained away the many bruises to parents that asked. One child began having "night terrors" waking up "screaming and often not calming down for 30 or 40 minutes."
From the CPS investigation summary report: The grandparents of one little girl stated: "..that they spoke to a pediatrician and to a day care consultant about the fact that (redacted name) was indicating strongly by her crying and her body language that she did not want to be left at the Johnson's home in the mornings. Mr. and Mrs. (name redacted) were told that some crying and reluctance to be left for care was quite normal, and should not be cause for concern. This case would certainly be an object lesson on the fact when a child exhibits these behaviors in regard to their day care situation,the parents and grandparents should make every effort to determine the source of their child's fears and apprehensions, and to report to the agency any information that would indicate abuse or neglect or which would be helpful to the licensor."
This author is fed up with the unelected government bureaucratic managers blaming the parents and not investigating the unelected bureaucratic managers who operated the agency in such a way as to allow children to be at risk, treated meanly and in some cases to have died.
Who was the "day care consultant"? Likely,it was a child care resource and referral agency. They exist because of your federal and tax money. They are not allowed access to child care licensing files to know any of the history on any providers. A false sense of security is provided to parents in the media hype that Child Care Resource and Referral agencies and Child Care Licensing agencies look out for the well-being of your child. The head of the state contracted agency makes over $100,000.00 a year as well.
Then the DSHS Division of Licensed Resources Child Protective Services (the layers of bureaucracy grow like a cancer after x number of deaths happen in child care, the managers stay the same, are often promoted, more taxpayer money is spent, the name of the agency changes, until another threshold of deaths become too much of a media story then the "reform" story and hype repeats itself) does not "investigate" the child care agency for possible neglect or failure of duty in licensing child day care homes and centers.
Robin Johnson suggestion was a good one in 1999. Robin had read WAC 388.155.180 correctly. Robin didn't know and I'm sure Charlotte's parents didn't know the legislature had enacted Robin's "suggestion" in 1995. The unelected government bureaucracy ignored the legislature.
Then that other portion of the unelected bureaucracy "investigated" only Robin and did not investigate the unelected child care licensing agency managers for their failure and neglect of duty to the citizens of Washington State.
Covering the most essential duties to keep your children safe have gotten worse over the years but the financial wealth of these unelected bureaucrats has increased. The number of managers who fail at their jobs has increased as well as their paychecks.
The Communications Managers, Amy Blondin, Communication Manager for the Department of Early Learning (the latest name for child care licensing) brings home at least $93,000.00 a year with health benefits and retirement benefits. Her boss, deputy director, Bob Hamilton brings home $112,000.00 a year with health benefits and retirement benefits.
Yet Washington State is in a dire budget situation.
You, the public, parents and and most certainly most of your teenagers know how to put a website up on-line in 15 minutes (if you don't know, Google Siteskins to do that), but these two highly paid child care licensing bureaucrats who make over $200,000.00 a year can't or more precisely won't comply with RCW 43.215.370 passed in 2007 (almost 4 years ago) to post those providers who hurt children, put them at risk or where children actually died as a result of being in a licensed provider's care. The Department of Early Learning is on FACEBOOK and could comply that way as well as on their own website. But they refuse to comply with this law.
Robin Johnson's suggestion was a good one in 1999. 12 years ago. It had become law in 1995. 16 years ago.
The only math going on is towards spending your tax money to enrich these unelected bureaucratic managers who won't comply with the laws.
I thought I'd post this article and opinion piece I wrote back in April 2011 about what a day care provider who murdered a fourteen month old in her care wrote to DSHS with a suggestion how to figure out a person who had her instability and not license them.
Here's my article and opinion piece from April 2011:
A reader of the Tacoma Tribune wrote a comment:
"Do those who the state gives a license to not only get a background check but a physiological and take a polygraph test? If not they should. Who knows what lurks in the minds of those we let take care of our kids. I would like to know that everything possible was done to ensure that those taking care of our children were fully screened and tested before taking care of any child that comes under their care."
Robin Johnson killed 18 month old Charlotte Wetzel in 1998. Robin had stomped on Charlotte's stomach causing internal injuries. Robin had previously abused Charlotte as well as other little girls in her licensed day care. Robin was 33 at the time.
Robin wrote a letter to her former licensor with a suggestion on how to keep children safe from people like her.
The letter was received by DSHS on April 22, 1999. Four years before Robin's suggestion in 1995 the legislature strengthened the laws protecting the children in licensed day care.
The unelected government bureaucracy is so broken and has been for 2 decade. As a former licensor and current expert witness at a minimum I urge parents to become essentially your own detectives if you must use licensed care. If you use unlicensed care also be your own detective. Both for your peace of mind and the well-being of your child.
This author is fed up with the unelected government bureaucracy blaming parents.
You cannot trust state employees to follow the licensing laws consistently, in fact, evidence shows that laws enacted by the senators and representatives you elected to represent the health and safety of you as a citizen and of your child in regards to child safety are cavalierly ignored by state employees starting from the top managers on down through the middle managers and then to the supervisors.
Top ranking elected officials such as Governor Gregoire, Attorney General McKenna and State Auditor, Brian Sonntag at a minimum appear impotent to enforce the laws of the legislature. Why is that?
Robin I. Johnson took full responsibility for abusing and killing Charlotte in her 1999 letter. Robin gave the child care licensing agency a suggestion on how to better monitor and evaluate potential daycare providers before giving them a license. Robin wrote:
"The most important issue, which I feel very strongly about because of the serious, even life-threatening impact it can have on any home daycare. Again, I speak from an insight from personal experience on this issue; the catalyst which played a major role in my crime. There is a dire need for mental health evaluations for all home daycare applicants. According to WAC 388.155.180 providers are expected to to be of sound mental health, but this cannot be truly ensured without proper evaluation. Applicants are carefully screened to ensure the children are placed in a safe, well-prepared, and thoughtfully planned daycare environment, with the exception of an evaluation of the applicant's mental stability."
What Robin didn't know and parents aren't told is that her recommendation was all ready a "shall" under the law per RCW 74.15.030(3)to investigate each applicant for "character, competence and suitability". That law allowed and does allow the state today to direct an applicant and other member of the household to get a mental health evaluation on a determination that one is so needed to enforce the intent of the law which had been strengthened in 1995 by the legislature after 4 babies died in licensed foster care (one was a day care baby)in 1993 and 1994.
I reviewed the "home study" the licensor did on Robin Johnson. Those important questions were on the home study and the licensor did not ask them. Robin is right, she was praised for having her environment look good. There was about a 3 sentence write up regarding the home study.
I as a licensor (a social worker 3 who by experience and with a masters in social work) had the expertise to ask the questions to make an evaluation as to the capabilities of the applicant to care for children. I did so. Folks struggling with hidden shame or on shaky grounds around the issue of allowing such a person to be alone with small vulnerable children who avoided or refused to get the mental health assessments I required of them, with that non-compliance I moved and denied the license. In 1993 when I got my first day care provider caseload of 260 I was appalled at who had been allowed to continue providing care. One day care provider had been fined in court for "child endangerment" and was allowed to keep her license. At the next "bloodied" child complaint, I interviewed her and found her to be very depressed; and probably had been chronically depressed for some time. I revoked her license. Why had DSHS managers allowed her to stay licensed?
In the course of my DSHS career I witnessed the laws made by the legislature ignored. In or around 2004..2005 unelected bureaucratic managers were directing licensors not to investigate applicants per RCW 74.15.030(3)for "character, competence and suitability".
Robin had only worked in a daycare center for one month when she applied to take children into her own private home. With the little girls in her care she had "backhanded them" "pulled their hair" "pushing them down" "shaking, dropping, kicking, stomping" One child "had had an area of hair almost the circumference of a 'pop can' pulled from her head" "Robin had hit her with a white belt, spanking her until she fell down". Robin explained away the many bruises to parents that asked. One child began having "night terrors" waking up "screaming and often not calming down for 30 or 40 minutes."
From the CPS investigation summary report: The grandparents of one little girl stated: "..that they spoke to a pediatrician and to a day care consultant about the fact that (redacted name) was indicating strongly by her crying and her body language that she did not want to be left at the Johnson's home in the mornings. Mr. and Mrs. (name redacted) were told that some crying and reluctance to be left for care was quite normal, and should not be cause for concern. This case would certainly be an object lesson on the fact when a child exhibits these behaviors in regard to their day care situation,the parents and grandparents should make every effort to determine the source of their child's fears and apprehensions, and to report to the agency any information that would indicate abuse or neglect or which would be helpful to the licensor."
This author is fed up with the unelected government bureaucratic managers blaming the parents and not investigating the unelected bureaucratic managers who operated the agency in such a way as to allow children to be at risk, treated meanly and in some cases to have died.
Who was the "day care consultant"? Likely,it was a child care resource and referral agency. They exist because of your federal and tax money. They are not allowed access to child care licensing files to know any of the history on any providers. A false sense of security is provided to parents in the media hype that Child Care Resource and Referral agencies and Child Care Licensing agencies look out for the well-being of your child. The head of the state contracted agency makes over $100,000.00 a year as well.
Then the DSHS Division of Licensed Resources Child Protective Services (the layers of bureaucracy grow like a cancer after x number of deaths happen in child care, the managers stay the same, are often promoted, more taxpayer money is spent, the name of the agency changes, until another threshold of deaths become too much of a media story then the "reform" story and hype repeats itself) does not "investigate" the child care agency for possible neglect or failure of duty in licensing child day care homes and centers.
Robin Johnson suggestion was a good one in 1999. Robin had read WAC 388.155.180 correctly. Robin didn't know and I'm sure Charlotte's parents didn't know the legislature had enacted Robin's "suggestion" in 1995. The unelected government bureaucracy ignored the legislature.
Then that other portion of the unelected bureaucracy "investigated" only Robin and did not investigate the unelected child care licensing agency managers for their failure and neglect of duty to the citizens of Washington State.
Covering the most essential duties to keep your children safe have gotten worse over the years but the financial wealth of these unelected bureaucrats has increased. The number of managers who fail at their jobs has increased as well as their paychecks.
The Communications Managers, Amy Blondin, Communication Manager for the Department of Early Learning (the latest name for child care licensing) brings home at least $93,000.00 a year with health benefits and retirement benefits. Her boss, deputy director, Bob Hamilton brings home $112,000.00 a year with health benefits and retirement benefits.
Yet Washington State is in a dire budget situation.
You, the public, parents and and most certainly most of your teenagers know how to put a website up on-line in 15 minutes (if you don't know, Google Siteskins to do that), but these two highly paid child care licensing bureaucrats who make over $200,000.00 a year can't or more precisely won't comply with RCW 43.215.370 passed in 2007 (almost 4 years ago) to post those providers who hurt children, put them at risk or where children actually died as a result of being in a licensed provider's care. The Department of Early Learning is on FACEBOOK and could comply that way as well as on their own website. But they refuse to comply with this law.
Robin Johnson's suggestion was a good one in 1999. 12 years ago. It had become law in 1995. 16 years ago.
The only math going on is towards spending your tax money to enrich these unelected bureaucratic managers who won't comply with the laws.
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