TAMPA, FL -- We trust them to care for our children, but how do you know if the daycare center you or someone in your family sends their kids to has a history of potentially dangerous violations and fines?
An ABC Action News investigation has discovered that scores of daycare centers have been cited just in the last year.
Eric Benevides and Christal Standen call their 3-year-old daughter Cassandra their "Angel."
An "Angel" they thought they had lost after receiving frantic calls to come to Footprints daycare last August.
"She had a rope around her neck. She had a rope around her neck? Yes," the caller reported during the 911 call.
"And I saw crime scene tape. What the hell happened to my kid," says Eric Benevides.
Cassandra was found by another child hanging unconscious from a broken playground toy with her neck caught in a tether ball rope.
"She was just gasping for air and it just killed me because there was nothing I could do whatsoever," says Christal Standen.
Cassandra survived, and for the time being at least, so has Footprints. Six months later, the facility remains open.
While the Pasco Sheriff's Department ruled what happened was an "accident", DCF has revoked Footprints' license. The owners are appealing the decision, which was based partly on inadequate supervision of kids at the time of the incident.
Footprints is the first center in the Bay area to have its license revoked this year. Last year, four day cares in the area had their licenses revoked.
But according to records reviewed by ABC Action News, more than 150 facilities throughout the Bay area last year were cited and fined for reasons ranging from failing to do background checks on employees with direct contact with children to failing to report incidents of child abuse or neglect.
Which is why DCF urges parents to check out prospective daycare centers on its website.
"Look up the place you are trying to put your kid and see what their inspections look like and see if they have had any violations," says Erin Gillespie of the Florida Department of Children and Families.
In Hillsborough alone, 33 daycare centers were cited for issues like staff to child ratio. 30 were cited for failure to conduct adequate background checks on staff, including "Wee Care about Kids" in Valrico.
Not only was the facility cited in September for "having a staff member working with children who had a disqualifying offense on her background screening," it was fined in October over lack of supervision of infants and not enough staff. It was cited again in December for inadequate background checks.
"That would be considered very serious. And I think in those cases where it does happen it's been a case where a particular crime was overlooked in the paperwork," says Linda Stoller, Manager of Child Care Licensing for Hillsborough County.
While Stoller says good daycares can wind up being fined, it's when the same facility is cited for the same thing repeatedly which could lead to license revocation.
Like Footprints. Last August's incident wasn't the first time the pre-school was cited for inadequate supervision by DCF. As the attorney for Cassandra's family discovered, another child had been injured less than a year earlier.
"It stuns me. The facility is already on notice that they have a supposed problem with not having adequate numbers of teachers to their students so it should be something that should have been remedied right away," says Sumeet Kaul, the family's attorney.
As for Christal Standen, she says what happened to her daughter should serve as a cautionary tale.
"Be very selective. I thought I was selective when I chose her first school. Obviously I wasn't," says Standen.
The owner of Footprints declined comment for this story.
So how do you find out whether the daycare you're considering has a history of violations? You can start by checking the state's website or you call the licensing agency in your county.
Or you can search a database we compiled by clicking
here.
