I-Team: State loop hole allows childcare facilities to ditch complaints on DCF site

TAMPA - An I-Team investigation has discovered a state website designed to help parents check out whether the day care where they send their children is safe may not tell the whole story. Not even close.

Children are our pride and joy and there's nothing we wouldn't do to protect them. But if you send your kids to daycare and want to check the DCF website to see whether there is a history of complaints, you might not find much of anything. But not because it isn't there.

There are dozens of complaints and reports about problems at Bradenton's All Starz Early learning Center, but they don't appear on the Department of Children and Families website.

"I think it's excessive. Fifty-seven violations in a year is a lot of violations for any children care center," says Sharon Oakes, Director of Operations at the Early learning Coalition of Manatee County.

The coalition is an independent agency that subsidizes the cost of daycare for needy families and has paid All Starz over$ 200,000 over the last two years.

The contract is now canceled because of complaints the coalition and DCF have received ranging from "Toxic substances that were that were left out at different times. A lot of child health and safety concerns. Background screenings not done for staff, insufficient ratio supervision for the number of children who were there,” Oakes says.

All Starz was fined $100 last year for having an unscreened worker caring for three toddlers.

How can there be so many complaints and it not be reflected on the DCF website? The I-Team has learned about what can best be described as a loop hole in state law.

"In the State of Florida, licensing for a day care is directly attached to that location," says Teresa Durdaller of the Department of Children and Families.

Since DCF licenses the location and not the person who owns or operates the daycare, erasing complaints made against you is as easy as moving.

When All Starz moved around the corner, its record of complaints was effectively wiped out from the state website.

"This is All Starz and it's the only location you're talking about right now," Ella Powell, owner of All Starz tells the I-Team.

When we asked Powell about all those complaints she told us “It was a whole different center."

And that's exactly the argument Powell made to the Early Learning Coalition in September when trying to save her contract with them. In a letter to the coalition, she wrote "When we moved into our new facility, our understanding was simply that we are starting out fresh."

Teresa Durdaller of DCF says in the eyes of the state, Powell is correct.

“Well if they have their violations under their location and they have paid all their fines, they have rectified it when they move,” Durdaller says.

Oakes claims she's been told privately by DCF there's a reluctance to be more aggressive with daycare's because of concerns about affecting someone's livelihood.

"It's been shared with us there's quite a process they have to go through in order to terminate a child care license,” says Oakes.

“Because they are concerned about the livelihood of the people who run the place?” We asked. “Yes," she replied.

When we asked DCF about that, Durdaller said, "We follow state statute and it's outlined in Florida law as to what we can do.”

Oakes says DCF may erase All Starz history of complaints, but the coalition's standards are more rigid.

All Starz was cited by DCF in April of last year for not having criminal backgrounds on two employees. They were cited again in December for no background check on three other employees and once more for the same reason in February of this year.

“Where did you get that information from?” Powell asked the I-Team When we told her The Early learning Coalition.

Her response was, “Okay, the Early Learning Coalition has no business telling you information on me.”

Last week the Early Learning Coalition says it terminated its contract with All Starz after the daycare rejected an offer to be placed on probation.

Since DCF’s initial inspection last June, the state hasn't cited All Starz for any new violations. But DCF tells the I-Team that parents should not rely on its website as the only tool to check out a day care center. The state says parents should visit the facility, talk to its director and staff and ask for references.