We Need To Provide Stricter Guidelines For Child Care Facilities

If you’ve ever had to place your child in a day care home or facility, you can understand the anxiety that a parent or guardian feels when placing their child in the hands of another individual. As a parent, I can relate firsthand that it is quite difficult. Therefore, when a constituent of mine from Dearborn Heights came forward with her heartbreaking experience involving a day care home provider, it became extremely clear to me that action must be taken to protect our children.

Patricia Chorba was like any other parent searching for a safe, nurturing day care facility for her 3-month-old son, Jayden. In June of 2007, a list of child care providers was provided to her by the Department of Human Services (DHS) in Jackson County, were she resided at the time. Ms. Chorba dropped off Jayden for his first day of child care on a Tuesday morning. That Friday, just three days later, Jayden passed away from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). An investigation later revealed that the day care owner had put her 14-year-old teenager in charge of Jayden and, unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident. Another child had previously passed away from SIDS at the same day care home in 1998.

This devastating event has raised many questions about the lack of information that is being provided to parents by DHS regarding background information on day care homes and facilities. Although DHS takes part in on-site inspections of licensed care providers every two years, a parent would have no way of knowing that a child had previously been injured or harmed in day care unless the information was provided to them by DHS. In this circumstance, the child care provider was not found negligent in the incident that resulted in the child’s death from 1998, the day care provider was only cited on rule violations, which are posted on-line for two years. Therefore, DHS did not find it necessary to report the previous death that occurred in 1998 to any new registering parents in 2007, including Ms. Chorba.

To ensure parents are fully informed of a day care provider’s history and to protect the safety and well-being of our children, I will be introducing legislation calling for stricter regulations for the licensing of a child care facility. It is the responsibility of DHS to directly report these incidents, which have resulted in serious harm or death of a child, to parents in order to guarantee that families have all the facts before making a decision on a child care provider.

By keeping a closer eye on what’s going on inside child care facilities and providing new reporting guidelines for DHS, we can be further assured that Michigan’s families are being provided with every piece of information they need to feel secure in placing their child in the care of another individual.