May 21, 2009 8:12 pm US/Eastern
I-Team: Miami-Dade's United Way Model Daycare
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
When you walk into the Miami-Dade United Way's demonstration model daycare you'd be forgiven if you thought you were in NASA or at the CIA. "They put their hand and open the door," said Gladys Montes, Vice President for the United Way's Center for Excellence in Early Education, describing state of the art biometrics readers which allow only parents of children at the daycare to enter the building.
"No stranger can go in (without staff allowing them in)," Montes said.
There are also special observation rooms and decks in this model center. "This is going to take you to the observation room," Montes said as she showed the way to one of the special areas. "This is for observation adults come in and observe the children."
There are also audio monitors for parents, inspectors and teachers.
"(College) professors bring their students here and they spend time observing the children," the United Way's Montes said. Even prospective future daycare owners can listen in to the children's day without directly interfering.
CBS4 I-Team investigator Stephen Stock tried out the technology and watched as children reacted to him putting on the headphones to listen to what they were doing. "So they know about the visitors they say,"
Stock said. "They said there are the visitors."
All this high tech equipment has a purpose said one of DCF's Miami supervisors for child care, Jeffrey Hurst.
"Daycare is not child's play," Jeffrey Hurst said. "You have to be very serious. You're taking other people's children in your care and you have to be responsible for them on a daily basis."
But this model daycare is really not meant to provide high quality care for children. Even though as the United Way's Gladys Montes said, "This is like a home."
Being a good environment for children is actually this program's secondary mission.
"In this particular school one of the things that we do is we are examples for how to build for those who want to build (a new daycare themselves)," Montes said.
I-Team investigator Stock asked, "This is meant to teach others who want to do it right how to do it (provide quality daycare)?"
Montes replied, "Exactly."
That's right, this daycare's first mission is to teach those adults who want to open a daycare how to do it the right way and give hints about how to do it cheaply without sacrificing quality of safety.
"If someone's considering opening up a daycare we refer them here," DCF's Jeffrey Hurst said. "So they can come and see what's available and get some good ideas so they can do it right the first time."
"It's what you're doing at the daycare that counts," Hurst said. "You don't have to have a lot of money. I think it's more of your commitment to the children. That is where the focus needs to be."
To that end, this model daycare with all the latest trappings, bells and whistles, the United Way Center for Excellence in Early Education located off Southwest Third Avenue near downtown Miami, serves as a model for soon to be daycare owners how to do it cheaply but still with high quality.
"This is meant to demonstrate you can do it many different ways?"
I-Team investigator Stock asked.
"Exactly. Yes," said DCF's Hurst.
"That's why when you look at the whole construction you're going to see in some places that you're going to find carpet that is in square carpet that is in a row vinyl is in square vinyl that is in a row various kinds of woods that you can use," Gladys Montes said.
"So you're going to use what you can, based on the budget that you have," Montes said.
I-Team investigator Stock asked Hurst about the bells and whistles and high tech equipment.
"I can hear a lot of the owners saying I can't afford this I can't do this? What would you say to that?"
Stock asked.
"You don't have to have a lot of money," Hurst replied.
"If you're interested in quality daycare really you can do it on a shoe string budget," the DCF child care supervisor inspection said.
Florida's DCF Secretary, George Sheldon, hails the
CBS4 I-Team first-of-its-kind investigation into daycares. Sheldon said he hopes
CBS4's year-long probe changes the troubling trend of poorly performing daycares in communities with lower than average incomes or majority African American or Hispanic populations.
Comparing two years worth of safety inspection daycare for every state licensed daycare in Florida with US Census data from 2000, the
I-Team, with the help of data analysts at Investigative Reporters and Editors, found that if you live in a poor or predominately African American community in Florida you have nearly twice the likelihood of finding troubled, problematic daycare in your community.
The
I-Team investigation found that predominately Hispanic communities had a slightly higher likelihood of finding troubled daycares than the rest of the state of Florida.
Find more information on that data analysis in our story aired May 20, 2009 by
clicking here.
You can also see the entire interactive map of state licensed daycares for the entire state of Florida by
clicking here.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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