Inspections Find Scary Day Care Even Though State Ranks In Top 10 For Quality, Agents Uncover Plenty Of Worrying Violations

When a state inspector recently surprised an inhome Spokane day care, two children were playing on the roof.

The provider also smelled of alcohol, the inspector observed in her report. “When asked the names of the kids, she kept putting her hands over her head and couldn’t readily reply.”

This was one of the more alarming scenes documented by 81 state inspections of day cares in Spokane County last spring.

The inspections were part of a statewide child care safety and health review and further proof of a growing crackdown on poor day care.

Day care is a Spokane growth industry. The number of centers and family home day cares has jumped by a third in the past five years alone.

In fact, about 15,000 Spokane kids are in child care on any given weekday, served by more than 800 licensed day cares.

They were inspected as often as every three months in the 1970s. In the past 15 years, the state’s monitoring program has shrunk to nothing.

Still, 13 day cares lost their licenses in Spokane County in the past year - almost three times the total for the prior five years combined.

Despite the state’s lack of day-care monitoring, Working Mother magazine ranked Washington among the top 10 states for child care quality this year. The state inspections also found some Spokane day cares in prime shape.

For example, an inspector raved about the Harvard Park Children’s Center on the South Hill: “Beautiful center!! Well-run, highly trained staff, facility extremely wellmaintained.”

But inspectors also found many centers and homes with problems. Too many kids. Records in disarray. Emergency numbers not posted. No criminal background checks on assistants. Children given medication without parental approval.

The state already had received complaints about most of the day cares inspected in the recent review. But the same types of violations were almost as common in the ones selected at random.

The review told the state that more surprise visits are needed.

“It showed us we need to get out into the homes more,” said Tim Nelson, Spokane director of child care policy for the state Department of Social and Health Services.

If we’re going to have a licensing program, why not make it a good one? he asked.

With the exception of visits from federal nutrition inspectors, Spokane day cares are checked once every three years at license renewal time.

The recent round of unannounced inspections clearly caught many providers off-guard.

One provider had left her children with an untrained friend while she went shopping. Another refused to let an inspector inside a house that reeked of cigarette smoke. One provider’s assistant was asleep when the inspector arrived.

“Some people still see day care as baby-sitting, not as a profession,” said Shannon Selland, a Spokane provider and advocate. “I wish there was more required education.”

Selland also said any overworked, underpaid provider can get caught at a bad moment.

“Some days, if people came over, they’d think I was the worst day care in the world - paint on the table, kids out scratching each other and the phone’s ringing.”

Of the 81 inspected day cares in the county, 45 were in-home day cares with as many as 12 children each and 36 were centers, serving as many as 170 children each.

The Spokesman-Review obtained inspection reports from the state’s recent safety and health review by requesting them under Washington’s Open Records Act.

Despite caring for greater numbers of children, the centers generally fared better than the in-home day cares, with fewer complaints and better compliance with standards.

For example, one in-home day care for 12 kids had five complaints about overcrowding and four about poor supervision, as well as one confirmed incident of sexual abuse - all in the past two years.

During the same time, the state received no complaints about the YMCA Early Childhood Center, at 507 N. Howard, which handles up to 170 children.

Here are some of the more disconcerting findings:

One in-home provider went shopping and left 10 kids, including a severely handicapped 1-year-old boy, with a friend. The inspector feared the handicapped baby was suffocating, his nose sucking up a blanket. The rest of the kids had nothing to do. The refrigerator was broken.

The provider remains under state supervision.

One provider refused to let an inspector inside her home, claiming there were no children there at the time. When the inspector finally got inside, she reported that cigarette smoke permeated the entire house. “Very unhealthy air in house,”she wrote.

The inspector also noted that there were no records on the children. “Absolutely no files. What if there’s an emergency? … How does she call parents if necessary?”

That provider is under state investigation.

Some day-care providers said they thought the state inspections focused on trivial details instead of gauging the true quality of care. Others, however, wanted to see inspectors more often.

“I think things slip between inspections,” said Gini Burns, owner of the Little Red School House day care on the South Hill. “I’d like to see more.”

Nelson said the state now closes day cares for violations that wouldn’t have shut them down just two years ago. For example, several day cares still are open after confirmed incidents of sexual abuse in 1993. The incidents likely would result in closure today, he said.

Nelson recently closed an Airway Heights day care where the provider was accused of hiding children in upstairs rooms when inspectors arrived. She had 20 kids when she was licensed to care for six.

Nelson said he often is berated by parents who take it personally when their day care is deemed unsafe.

“I had parents literally threaten me,” Nelson said of the Airway Heights closure. “I told some of them we’d be having a different conversation if your kid had died in a fire there.”

The family day care most lacking in compliance with the state’s safety requirements was the same one where the two children - one was a grandson - were on the roof. Her day care was out of compliance in 15 of 22 areas.

The state suspended the provider’s license last month. She had been in business running day cares for 24 years in Washington.

Nelson said he received angry telephone calls for shutting down that provider, too.

“I tell them, ‘Jeez, this was the kind of stuff going on,’ and they say, ‘Well, my child’s never been hurt there.”’

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MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: TIPS OFFER ROAD MAP TO BEST DAY CARE There is no quick way to find great day care in Spokane. Day-care organizations provide shopping hints and lists of nearby centers and in-home care. But nobody directs parents to the best day care. Most providers, parents and licensers agree ideal day care looks something like this: The provider is trained in early childhood education and knows how to boost self-esteem. The day care is safe and clean with small child-to-staff ratios and provides activities that help children learn. Some day-care shopping tips from providers and licensers include: Plan ahead. Often, the best-care givers have waiting lists. Expect it to take as much as two months. Visit the day cares and call other parents for references. Ask center directors whether their program has been accredited with the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Be aware that in-home day care often is more convenient and can preserve a family setting, but day-care centers often have better-trained staff. Trust your intuition. “The provider needs to be warm and nurturing,” added Nancy Gerber, president of the Eastern Washington Family Day Care Association. “Watch how the providers relate with their children. When kids get hurt - and they do - do they go to the provider?” The non-profit Family Care Resources helps parents find available care in their area for a small fee. Call 484-0048. Day-care inspection reports and copies of confirmed day-care complaints can be obtained by writing the state Department of Social and Health Services, 1425 N. Washington. The state also offers a pamphlet called “Choosing Child Care,” a consumer guide for parents. - Jim Lynch