PHOTO/NYCity News Service

Day Care Danger

How a patchwork system fails kids and families in New York and beyond

Finding available and affordable child care presents a steadily growing challenge around the U.S. — exacerbated by closures during the pandemic as well as staff shortages.

Meanwhile, the price tag for child care has swelled to more than $60 billion a year, and federal funding for states to provide child care has dried up, threatening more than 3.2 million slots.

Amid the chaos, regulations meant to keep children safe have been watered down — putting children at risk, experts say. And even when strict regulations are in place, problems can slip through the cracks.

The NYCity News Service spent five months combing through databases, court filings, public records and enforcement actions — and found a patchwork system failing youngsters who represent the nation’s future. 

WHAT WE FOUND

• Our analysis of 2022 inspection data reveals New York City inspectors conducting routine visits found serious violations in about one out of every 10 child care centers that serve infants, toddlers and preschoolers. Among the hazards: unsafe buildings, too few workers overseeing too many children and staffers not checked for criminal records.

• As of March 2024, there were more than 80 home-based day care centers in New York City with licenses that were revoked, pending revocation, suspended or denied to continue operating, our review of state records showed. Among them is the day care where a 1-year-old child died because the home day care was allegedly the site of an illegal fentanyl operation, a tragedy that became international news.

• Troubled day cares where inspectors have found repeated issues continue to operate — often without parents knowing the extent of the issues. One family whose infant son died because of alleged negligence told us they never would have kept their child at his Manhattan day care facility if they knew how many problems inspectors had found there — including during his time at the facility leading up to his death.

• Fitness centers around the country advertise child care as a convenience to attract parents. But many gyms don’t have to follow the same regulations as typical child care facilities — leading to a host of nightmarish allegations about the mistreatment, neglect and abuse of children in those facilities, our reporting found.

• Our analysis of day care regulation across the U.S. found a wide range of rules on day care safety — including on minimum caregiver-to-child ratios, required training and minimum age for staff or directors. For example, caregivers in New York can’t supervise more than seven preschoolers at a time, while in Florida they can watch up to 15 3-year-olds. Some states are considering raising ratios to keep up with demand and keep costs down — but experts say that increased risk for kids isn’t worth the tradeoff.

• Child care facilities based at religious institutions have a different level of oversight. In Indiana, a church-based day care was allowed to continue to operate — even after its director pleaded guilty to doling out the sleep aid melatonin to more than a dozen preschoolers at nap time without parents’ permission.

• Day care workers are struggling to stay afloat financially, facing some of the lowest pay in the country amid rampant wage theft, our analysis of federal Department of Labor wage violation data found. From 2018 to 2023, day care centers across the country owed more than $5.8 million in back wages to more than 13,000 workers, we discovered.

IN NEW YORK

THE NATIONAL SCENE