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New report by state Child Advocate sheds light on historic cluster of child fatalities in day care settings

Hartford Courant - 12/18/2018

Dec. 18--In the spring of 2016 through fall of 2017, Connecticut saw a collective tragedy unmatched for 20 years or more: Nine children died while in the care of home daycare providers across the state.

Six of those nine children were being cared for in unlicensed, illegal settings.

A new report by the state Child Advocate, released Tuesday, condemned those rogue operators, but also said that the same trends that claim the lives of children outside daycare -- unsafe sleep conditions, medication toxicity, homicide by blunt trauma, and a range of natural but possibly preventable causes -- were all represented here among the nine cases.

The inspectors, the Assistant Child Advocate Faith Vos Winkel wrote, need to be thinking more about each of those trends as they examine the households of licensed childcare providers or those who have applied for licenses.

The report said that everything that is done by the inspectors with the Office of Early Childhood "must be supported by data regarding risk and safety."

Since unsafe sleep is the leading cause of preventable death of infants in Connecticut, for example, then the licensing process must emphasize "education, monitoring and urgent corrective action regarding safe-sleep practices in day care settings," the report states.

The report urged childcare regulators to closely examine why some parents turn to unlicensed care, which is usually cheaper, but lacks the safeguards against the shortcuts and recklessness that can be fatal to a child.

Not since the mid 1990s, before regulations were tightened, had the state seen such a cluster of day care deaths, said Vos Winkel.

Cuts in a childcare subsidy called Care4Kids in 2017 may have driven more low-income parents into the childcare underground, the report said.

"These child deaths that took place while Care4Kids was closed are a horrible reminder of what happens when parents can't access quality care so they can work," said Merrill Gay, who directs the Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance.

Unless the state receives a specific complaint and can confirm the illegal activity, these providers operate unchecked, undercutting licensed home providers by as much as $150 per week.

In Connecticut, caring for even one unrelated child on a regular basis for more than three hours a day requires a license from the Office of Early Childhood. That's a low threshold. Only nine other states and the District of Columbia reach down as far.

Having a license means the home has passed a basic safety check, and the provider and any assistants have cleared criminal and child-abuse background checks.

But many skirt the application process, either intentionally or out of ignorance of the law.

Finding some of them is as easy as checking the child-care ads on Craigslist.

"Stay-at-home-mom available to babysit!" reads an ad posted by a woman in central Connecticut who has two young children of her own.

"I'm available Monday through Thursday from 7-5, possibly earlier or later if needed. I can also be available on the weekends. I can provide breakfast, lunch, and a snack," the ad states.

A reporter texted this would-be provider and asked if she was licensed by the state.

"Hi, at the moment I'm not," she texted back

In the two-year period before the cluster of deaths, from February 2014 to February 2016, a single infant died in a licensed home-based setting.

The Child Advocate's Office "strongly recommends that lawmakers ... continue to strengthen low-income families' access to high-quality, licensed infant-toddler care ... as a strategy" to prevent child deaths, the report states.

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