Delaware has procedures to investigate issues at child care centers. But are they working?

Editor's note: This article has been updated to reflect that The Department of Education has fixed the previously broken links to annual compliance inspections for licensed child care providers as of Wednesday afternoon. A clarification has also been added to state that, although not listed online, recreational camp complaints can be obtained by filing a Freedom of Information Act request.

Kingswood Community Center in Wilmington opens the doors to its Early Learning Academy at 7 every morning.

The 65 kids between the ages of 1 and 5 years old are dropped off to a team of teachers and staff for a day of playing, meals and creative learning units. All of the Early Learning Academy’s operations must meet guidelines set by state laws, or the community center risks losing its early child care provider license.

But with rising costs and qualified employees becoming harder to find and retain, operating child care centers in Delaware — as well as paying for one’s children to attend them — has grown increasingly more difficult.

Julie Bieber, director of operations at Kingswood Community Center, said many of the children attending her program have their costs covered by the state. But not all Delawareans have that option, and the pandemic has left many parents still grappling with changes in income and availability.

According to a recent report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, almost 13% of Delaware’s young children are in families in which someone “quit, changed, or refused a job” due to struggles finding child care.

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Bieber said the Early Learning Academy only recently returned to its full pre-pandemic capacity, with past years seeing both decreased open slots for safety, as well as fewer parents wanting to send their children to in-person programming.

Simply finding available and affordable child care isn’t the end of the battle, though —  parents and guardians then have to determine whether the people they entrust with their children are safe.

The Office of Child Care Licensing, part of the Delaware Department of Education, is tasked with reviewing facilities or individuals prior to them being licensed child care providers. The office also conducts yearly reviews and investigates any claims of misconduct.

Of the 1,106 complaints submitted to and investigated by the Office of Child Care Licensing in the past five years, 74% were at least partially substantiated. Many involved lack of supervision, improper discipline and failure to follow COVID-19 safety protocols when they were in place.

Caitlin Gleason, associate secretary for Early Childhood Support with the Office of Child Care Licensing, said that depending on the severity of the complaint and plans to remedy it, a child care center may receive a warning of probation, be placed on probation or have their license revoked entirely.

Any disciplinary action or complaint can be appealed if the provider feels it is false or unfair.

“We strive to be as objective as possible,” Gleason said. “It's a necessity when you're monitoring child care, health and safety.”

As of Monday, 13 licensed child care providers were either on probation or warning of probation. The reasoning behind these statuses is not publicly posted, and prior to the Department of Education fixing the issue on the afternoon of July 5, the links to all annual compliance inspections resulted in error messages.

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Gleason said the office does not share any information on places whose licenses have been revoked or whose applications for licenses have been denied, stating only that one license was either revoked or denied so far in 2023.

A spokesperson for the Department of Education did not respond to questions as to why the names of these licensees are not publicly available.

Unlike other state regulatory bodies which list people whose licenses in particular fields have expired or been revoked, the names of child care providers whose licenses have been revoked are not listed in the office’s online directory of licensed providers.

Becoming a licensed child care provider in Delaware

Gleason said the Office of Child Care Licensing works with aspiring providers to make sure they understand the application process and are able to meet all the requirements when they submit it. Free information sessions are hosted statewide, and applications can be submitted multiple times.

“We try to support as many people as possible,” Gleason said.

At the same time, the requirements for licensing are thorough and specific. While they differ slightly depending on whether the applicant is a child care center or a family-operated provider, the major components remain the same: comprehensive background checks, emergency plans and buildings free of hazards like lead and radon.

Licensed child care centers in Delaware are required to have an administrator and at least one teacher with state-issued Early Learning Certificates on staff. Family-run child care providers are not required to have this certification but do need to submit additional documentation of training and past employment to the Office of Child Care Licensing.

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Licenses must be regularly renewed, and providers must reapply if there’s a change in leadership or location.

The Office of Child Care Licensing also oversees recreational camps that accept purchase of care, meaning they take financial assistance from the state to help families pay for child care. Otherwise, camps for school-age children can be certified by the Division of Public Health.

Like the Office of Child Care Licensing, officials with the Division of Public Health work with providers to educate and improve the safety of their services even before there are potential issues. They also investigate any complaints or concerns submitted, though officials say they tend to receive fewer camp-related complaints than ones related to early child care.

However, the state does not make complaints and investigations of recreational camps publicly available despite some camps needing licensure from the Office of Child Care Licensing to operate.

The state later clarified that, although the complaints and investigations are not available online, the records can be requested by submitting a Freedom of Information Act request to DPH.

Marc Eoppolo, the Community Environmental Health Services director at DPH's Health Systems Protection Section, said that many of the camps operating in Delaware have done so for multiple years and tend to understand the regulations.

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And for newer camp directors who may not know everything, Eoppolo said the regulations can serve as a guide to point out potential hazards that the director may not have considered.

"We try to take everything into account that could lead to a health or safety issue because this is really just for the promotion of physical, mental and social wellbeing for the kids," Eoppolo said.

DPH has issued 107 licenses to recreational camps to operate during the summer of 2023. Eoppolo said his team often finds out about unlicensed recreational camps before they can begin operating, as many directors will advertise their camps ahead of the start date.

The Office of Child Care Licensing said it licensed one recreational camp this year.

When the abuse is severe

Sometimes, cases involving misconduct by licensed child care providers are given to the Division of Services for Youth and Their Families to investigate. These instances are often reported to the Child Abuse and Neglect Report Line and, if they involve a child care provider, are then passed to the Institutional Abuse Unit, part of the Division of Management Support Services.

If a staff member is under investigation, state regulations prohibit them from interacting with children. They may be allowed to continue working at a child care center in a way that doesn’t involve children “at the licensee’s discretion,” according to the law.

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In many of these cases, complaints of abuse by childcare providers don’t reach the level of institutional abuse and are turned over to the Office of Child Care Licensing to investigate, according to Division of Management Support Services Director Alison McGonigal. Most injuries are often from outside of the child care setting or have natural causes, like falling while playing.

Improper discipline — which ranges from yelling at children to shoving or hitting them — also falls under the Office of Child Care Licensing’s jurisdiction.

However, McGonigal said that when a case of institutional abuse does take place, it’s often “egregious” — and takes a multidisciplinary team including doctors and police to investigate.

One of these cases was the fatal smothering of 4-month-old Isabella Talton in 2019 by a Bear child care worker who, according to investigations, did not have the necessary background to be unsupervised with young children.

Talton was not the first child she smothered, either — just the first one she got caught abusing.

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The pattern of behavior points to a need for comprehensive background checks and better monitoring of employees, McGonigal said.

But as child care providers are faced with continued staffing shortages — often fueled by low pay and demanding hours — advocates say safety may fall to the wayside.

“A lot of places are more desperate for people,” said Beau Biden Foundation Executive Director Patricia Dailey Lewis. “And because they spend more time trying to find people and interview people, they may be cutting some corners in terms of training.”

This could mean that staff isn’t aware of the necessary supervision ratios or appropriate discipline. Even more concerningly to Dailey Lewis, it could mean they aren’t aware of the signs of child abuse and how to report them.

Reporting child abuse

Data shows that most children who die from abuse are under the age of 5. Because many of these kids aren’t old enough to speak for themselves or know how to disclose what’s happening to them, it falls on other adults in their lives — whether they be teachers, doctors or child care providers — to report the abuse before it’s too late.

And while legally attesting to this knowledge is a requirement for working for or operating as a child care provider, Daily Lewis said that does not necessarily mean it’s put into practice.

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In one recent investigation, the Office of Child Care Licensing found out that a child disclosed to two staff members at a licensed child care center that another staff member had choked him, and neither of the staff members reported the suspected abuse to the Child Abuse and Neglect Report Line.

In another case, the administrator and owner of a licensed child care center said they saw bruises and cuts on a child that the child did not get at the center but did not call the report line, according to a substantiated complaint to the Office of Child Care Licensing.

These providers are not listed as on probation or warning of probation, and it is not stated in any publicly available data if other disciplinary actions were taken.

“We need to do better for families and make sure they have available safe child care with trained, responsible and appropriate professionals,” Dailey Lewis said.

She added that not knowing how and when to use the Child Abuse and Neglect Report Line is also a major issue for camp counselors, as school-age kids are more likely to disclose abuse to counselors whom they view as their peers.

So how does one find safe child care?

Delawareans can look up the name of any child care provider on the Department of Education's website to see whether they're licensed, what substantiated complaints have been lodged against them and any issues of noncompliance. The page also provides information about location, capacity and whether the provider accepts purchase of care.

Gleason said the Office of Child Care Licensing accepts feedback from both providers and parents to "make sure that both families and child care professionals have the tools and the resources that they need," and tips for parents looking for child care are available on the office's website.

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It can also be helpful for parents to visit potential providers to see the environment and personalities of providers before making a decision, Gleason said.

"You're looking for a space that mirrors your values and it's safe for (your kids)," Gleason said. "And that's so important."

Anyone who suspects child abuse or neglect is asked to call the Child Abuse and Neglect Report Line at (800) 292-9582.

Send story tips or ideas to Hannah Edelman at hedelman@delawareonline.com. For more reporting, follow them on Twitter at @h_edelman.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware child care issues go beyond cost, scarcity. Are they safe?