Mar 31, 2009 12:45 am US/Eastern
I-Team: How Safe Is Your Child's Daycare, Pt. 4
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
A
CBS4 I-Team investigation has prompted the state of Florida to track troubled daycares that repeatedly violate basic safety rules. And now, for the first time, you'll be able to track updates about those same daycares, on-line, on a real-time regular basis.
We walked into Uncle Charles Learning Center unannounced just like inspectors are supposed to do.
"Hello, I'm looking for Tracye Wilkerson,"
I-Team investigator Stephen Stock said as he walked in the open door.
The
I-Team found no locked doors, no supervision to stop us from walking right into this Lauderhill daycare.
"Do you have any idea when she'll be back?"
Stock asked the first worker he found inside yet another open door. "No," came the reply from the unidentified daycare worker.
The
I-Team found no safeguards to keep children from walking out of the daycare.
The next day, we spoke with the daycare's owner, Tracye Wilkerson and showed her Broward County human services inspection records for her daycare.
"Fails to comply, fails to comply,"
I-Team investigator Stock said reading from one of the inspector's reports. "I counted 17 ('Fails to Comply'.)"
"These are not violations," Tracye Wilkerson responded.
On the inspection report the notations are officially called "Fails to Comply". They noted violations of dozens of safety rules and standards on the official inspection checklist. These are standards that are either part of state law or Broward County ordinance governing the proper, safe operation of daycares.
I-Team Related Links
Search the CBS4.com Daycare Database
I-Team: How Safe Is Your Day Care, Pt.1
I-Team: How Safe Is Your Day Care, Pt. 2
I-Team: How Safe Is Your Day Care, Pt. 3
"The county calls them violations,"
Stock said "We call them violations of the rules on the inspection sheet."
Whatever you call them; Uncle Charles Learning Center had 47 of them in 2008.
They were violations of rules such as lack of proper supervision of children, poor condition of the building and the playground as well as toxic and hazardous chemicals where children could get to them.
"You're violating a rule,"
Stock said. "You failed to comply with a rule."
Uncle Charles Learning Center has 25 of these violations already so far this year. They are violations of rules governing such things as more child supervision, playground condition and training and safe vehicle transportation issues.
Wilkerson responded. "These are not violations that are going to cost me financially, let me put it that way," the daycare owner said.
This is the same daycare warned by inspectors in a report dated July 3, 2008, not to allow children near a hot stove. Then in October, what inspectors warned against happened!
A child in the daycare wandered to that same hot stove, grabbed a pot of boiling water and accidentally pulled it onto his own face.
That incident is now the subject of a civil lawsuit.
"My attorney said I'm not allowed to talk about that," Wilkerson said.
As for our apparent discovery of the violations to keep strangers like us out, and the children in,
Stock asked about that as well.
"I was able to walk in the door, wide open kids running around," Stock said to Wilkerson. "I could have been a bad guy."
The daycare's owner had an answer for that too.
"I wasn't here yesterday and that will definitely be addressed because as you can see it's a locked door," Wilkerson.
"But it wasn't (locked) yesterday?"
Stock asked.
"But I'm showing you it is locked door and you have to be buzzed in," Wilkerson said.
The truth is that a comprehensive computer analysis of the safety inspection record of every daycare in South Florida shows Uncle Charles Learning Center, 3421 West Broward Boulevard, Lauderhill, had the most violations (72) of safety rules in Broward County both in 2008 (47) and so far in 2009 (25).
I-Team Related Links
Search the CBS4.com Daycare Database
I-Team: How Safe Is Your Day Care, Pt.1
I-Team: How Safe Is Your Day Care, Pt. 2
I-Team: How Safe Is Your Day Care, Pt. 3
On the list, Uncle Charles was followed by Cradles to Creativity, 1577 Sunset Strip in Sunrise, with 20 violations in 2008, 12 "Fails to Comply" so far in 2009.
In Miami-Dade, Saint John's Tot Center, 1328 NW 3rd Avenue, Miami, had 63 violations from 2007 to 2008. The next highest daycare on the list of violations, Kidz Zone Center Inc. 3178 NW 132nd Terrace, Opa Locka, had 59. Bethune Head Start and Enrichment Center, 2900 NW 43rd Terrace, Miami, had 58 violations.
In fact, the
CBS4 I-Team found 92 different daycares in Miami-Dade, 48 in Broward with 20 or more violations in the last two years.
The
I-Team showed the results of our investigation to the head of the office that monitors child care in Broward County.
"This is a very detailed anaylsis of our data," said Mike Elwell, acting director for Broward County's department of Human Services, the agency that oversees, regulates and inspects all licensed daycares in the county.
"I'm not surprised with the number of areas out of compliance because our staff is very aggressive in terms of looking at things," Elwell said. "What I am surprised about are the higher class one violations that over the two years those are high."
But until the
CBS4 I-Team did it, those in charge of keeping children in daycares safe did not track their own inspection records and data.
I-Team Related Links
Search the CBS4.com Daycare Database
I-Team: How Safe Is Your Day Care, Pt.1
I-Team: How Safe Is Your Day Care, Pt. 2
I-Team: How Safe Is Your Day Care, Pt. 3
And until we did it, neither the state nor county child care officials could tell parents, inspectors, daycare owners, anyone, which daycares had the most trouble complying with basic safety rules.
"Why has it taken so long for the state to get to this point?"
I-Team investigator Stephen Stock asked state child care licensing director Deborah Russo.
"I think it's just a progressive action," Russo replied.
Russo serves as the top official overseeing daycare licensing in her role as director of child care licensing for Florida's Department of Children and Families.
"Until now the state really couldn't tell you which daycare was having the most trouble complying?"
Stock asked. "They just didn't simply have those aggregate numbers?"
"We didn't have them easily," Russo said. "We (the state) always have had them (the numbers in some form) but it was a very egregious task to get to that information."
"How does that (availability of this data) help you?"
Stock asked Broward County's top child care official.
"Well it helps us in terms of looking at hot spots in terms of some of our facilities and homes that may have higher numbers of violations and things like that," said Broward County's Mike Elwell.
As for daycares such as Uncle Charles Learning Center, our computer analysis discovered the daycare violates the same rules again and again and again.
That's why Broward County officials say they've begun legal action to revoke the daycare's license.
"Is there a time and a place where you have to shut them (Uncle Charles' Learning Center) down?"
Stock asked.
"Absolutely," Mike Elwell replied.
"Do you think that time now for this?"
Stock asked.
"Yes, yes it is," said Elwell.
But Tracye Wilkerson vows to fight to keep her daycare open.
"They're trying to take your license?"
Stock asked Uncle Charles' Learning Center's owner.
"I understand that," owner Tracye Wilkerson said. "I'm aware of that and I've got an attorney working on it."
Because of our efforts both the state and county officials have, for the first time, agreed to routinely release public inspection data to us.
That way the
CBS4 I-Team can, now, for the first time, regularly update that information for you on our interactive map.
I-Team Related Links
Search the CBS4.com Daycare Database
I-Team: How Safe Is Your Day Care, Pt.1
I-Team: How Safe Is Your Day Care, Pt. 2
I-Team: How Safe Is Your Day Care, Pt. 3
Then, you can click on any daycare anywhere in South Florida to see its current safety record. Coming soon, a similar interactive map for the entire state regulated daycare system. Stay tuned.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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