Childtime's long road to change
State gave Kent day care many chances to meet standards
Monday, June 24, 2002
By RUTH SCHUBERT
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Teachers yelling at toddlers -- or ignoring them. Filthy bathrooms reeking of urine. Overcrowded classes. Kids forced to sit on mats for hours at a time.
Serious violations piled up at the Childtime Learning Center in Kent over two years, exposing hundreds of children to substandard care -- and potential harm.
Most parents didn't realize the extent of the problems.
The chain-owned center, licensed to care for 110 children ranging from one month to 12 years old, failed to send out mandatory letters to parents in December, informing them that Childtime had been put on probation. By then, the center had been written up for more than 50 violations.
As conditions at the center deteriorated, some parents felt stuck.
Jeri van Allen, who has two children at the center, is happy with the improvements that have been made. But a couple of months ago, she was looking for other day cares. "I wanted to pull my kids out of there, but it's so hard to find a place that will take infants," van Allen said.
Licensors could have cracked down earlier. Instead, they chose to work with administrators, a strategy that repeatedly failed. The center didn't clean up its act until fines were threatened and Childtime was placed on probation -- the last step before license revocation.
The case epitomizes the state's reluctance to punish child care centers that repeatedly fail to meet minimum standards.
"No one wants to shut down a center that's providing care for hundreds of children," said Patricia Eslava Vessey, who oversees the Kent office of the state Division of Child Care and Early Learning, the agency charged with regulating day cares.
Rachael Langen, who heads the agency, said the center serves a lot of families and licensors didn't feel children were in danger of imminent harm. "The licensor obviously worked her butt off," Langen said. "Hindsight is 20/20."
But William Gormley, a Georgetown University professor who has written on child care issues, reviewed the case and concluded that the state should have done more.
"No one wants to shut down a day care center, but you need to deal effectively and vigorously with problems as they arise," he said. "That really did not happen in this instance."
Gormley noted "several failures" by licensors, including a lack of documentation for several months, belated and reluctant use of intermediate sanctions such as fines and failure to independently verify that parents were notified in writing of the center's probationary status.
There's no evidence that any children enrolled at Childtime were seriously harmed, and the center today is still on probation, but is close to satisfying minimum standards."Things are greatly improved," said JoAnn Johnson, western regional manager for Childtime, one of the nation's largest child care providers, based in Farmington Hills, Mich.
The Kent center -- a one-story building that sits amid sprawling apartment complexes and condos -- opened in 1997.
By late 1999, complaints were mounting. Written citations stopped for a time, though, when Childtime was assigned a new licensor. Eslava Vessey said the licensor, who no longer works for the agency, held back in hopes of building a relationship with the center director that could lead to improvements.
Records show that in April 2000, however, a former Childtime employee called the state with a slew of alarming complaints: The center never asked for her ID and failed to run a required criminal-background check. Teachers were sending children to the bathroom with no supervision. Overloaded staff members were screaming at kids. Later that year, the licensor cited nearly a dozen violations related to the instructional program, staff, supplies and sanitation.
"The staff attending to the children at the table was not interacting with the children," the licensor wrote in her report. "Instead, she was yelling at them to be quiet and stop talking."
Despite the problems, the center received full license renewal -- required every three years -- in September 2000. The next month, a staffer complained to the state that the director cleaned up the day care for investigations, then it was back to the "old s--t," licensing records show.
In November, the center was written up for hazardous and unsanitary conditions. Inadequate staffing also remained a problem.
The day after that inspection, a probation officer reported that a Childtime employee, who had tested positive for methamphetamines and marijuana three times in recent months, was going out at lunch to buy drugs. The employee quit a week later.
In February 2001, a parent who visited the center to see if she wanted to place her child there called the state to complain that it was in "disgusting condition." The room reserved for 3-year-olds was out of control, floors reeked of urine and dirty dishes were piled up in the kitchen, the parent said.
That month, the state cited 31 examples of where the center violated 10 state laws and issued a warning letter, threatening to impose fines of up to $250 a day per violation.
Childtime administrators "assured us that they were on it; that they were going to address the deficiencies," Eslava Vessey said.
Based on those assurances, the fine was never imposed. But the problems didn't end.
It would take nearly nine more months of complaints and violations before the state finally placed Childtime on a probationary license, an agreement between Childtime and the state that included due dates for the completion of repairs, staff training, revamping the educational program and monthly licensor visits.
Since then, the center has met most of its probationary requirements, with the exception of the advisory letter to parents. That was sent out in March -- three months late.
In February, Childtime fired the director of the Kent center.
Her replacement is better qualified, Johnson said, with a master's degree
The center's probationary status has been extended while it completes a few remaining requirements.
Update - current licensing status:
Neither the DEL website nor the Childtime website show evidence of a Kent center currently being in operation. They do however have 4 centers in Washington State:
CHILDTIME 135 |
Data current as of 06/23/2010 |
135 S 312TH ST |
|
253.946.1137 |
|
Provider ID |
186717 |
Licensed Capacity |
107 children |
Facility Type |
Child Care Center |
Ages Served |
From 1 month To 12 years |
Initial License Date |
6/27/1997 |
Current License Status |
Fully Licensed |
Last Renewal Date |
6/27/2009 |
DEL Licensor |
Heather West |
License Expires |
6/26/2012 |
DEL Licensor Phone |
253.372.6017 |
Issue Type(s) |
WAC |
# Valid Issues |
Complaint Resolution |
|
110462 |
1 Valid Issue |
Resolved on: 09/27/2005 |
||
112010 |
|
2 Valid Issues |
Resolved on: 02/16/2006 |
|
117248 |
1 Valid Issue |
Resolved on: 06/28/2006 |
||
135514 |
1 Valid Issue |
Resolved on: 01/27/2009 |
||
685669 |
WAC covers multiple complaint issues |
1 Valid Issue |
Resolved on: 10/22/2009 |
CHILDTIME #906 |
Data current as of 06/23/2010 |
4311 NE 5TH ST BLDG A |
|
425.277.1696 |
|
Provider ID |
186711 |
Licensed Capacity |
62 children |
Facility type |
Child Care Center |
Ages Served |
From 1 month To 6 years |
Initial License Date |
6/27/1997 |
Current License Status |
Fully Licensed |
Last Renewal Date |
6/27/2009 |
DEL Licensor |
Jane Inglis |
License Expires |
6/26/2012 |
DEL Licensor Phone |
425.590.3095 |
Issue Type(s) |
WAC |
# Valid Issues |
Complaint Resolution |
|
110097 |
1 Valid Issue |
Resolved on: 12/05/2005 |
||
117900 |
1 Valid Issue |
Resolved on: 10/17/2006 |
||
128040 |
1 Valid Issue |
Resolved on: 11/05/2007 |
||
131033 |
1 Valid Issue |
Resolved on: 05/30/2008 |
Childtime 907 |
Data current as of 06/23/2010 |
4306 156th Ave NE #NN |
|
425.869.3949 |
|
Provider ID |
387938 |
Licensed Capacity |
90 children |
Facility Type |
Child Care Center |
Ages Served |
From 1 month To 12 years |
Initial License Date |
2/14/2007 |
Current License Status |
Fully Licensed |
Last Renewal Date |
6/26/2009 |
DEL Licensor |
Roxanne Garzon |
License Expires |
6/25/2012 |
DEL Licensor Phone |
425.590.3099 |
Issue Type(s) |
WAC |
# Valid Issues |
Complaint Resolution |
|
115909 |
1 Valid Issue |
Resolved on: 05/23/2006 |
||
135280 |
1 Valid Issue |
Resolved on: 10/09/2008 |
CHILDTIME LEARNING CENTER |
Data current as of 06/23/2010 |
1196 NW TAHOE LN |
|
360.692.0202 |
|
Provider ID |
187390 |
Licensed Capacity |
118 children |
Facility Type |
Child Care Center |
Ages Served |
From 1 month To 12 years |
Initial License Date |
6/30/1997 |
Current License Status |
Fully Licensed |
Last Renewal Date |
6/30/2009 |
DEL Licensor |
Jody Hitchings |
License Expires |
6/29/2012 |
DEL Licensor Phone |
360.475.3411 |
Issue Type(s) |
WAC |
# Valid Issues |
Complaint Resolution |
|
117139 |
1 Valid Issue |
Resolved on: 08/18/2006 |
(Copied here under fair use for educational purposes)
