State: Abuse cases closed too slowly

By Adam Wilson | The Olympian • Published July 29, 2008

Closing cases of alleged abuse or neglect at child care centers is taking too long, according to the state's own data.

In nine out of 10 cases, the Department of Early Learning resolves complaints about child care center policies or facilities within 90 days.

But if the complaint involves possible abuse or neglect, closing the case can be hung up between Early Learning and Child Protective Services, which is part of a different department.

Less than half of those cases are closed within three months.

Emergency abuse reports are almost always investigated within 24 hours, and there have been no serious injuries or deaths at Washington child care centers since Early Learning was created two years ago.

But leaving a case open long after the initial investigation can cause other problems.

Parents are notified of complaints, and a staff member accused of abuse is suspended during the investigation, said Kelley Egre, a spokeswoman for Portland-based KinderCare, which operates 80 centers in Washington.

"In the end, we really want licensing (investigators) to find out exactly what happened, and we would support whatever time they need," she said. "Our concern just lies with our staff person that is affected, and primarily with the family involved."

Egre said she wasn't aware of any particular problems because of long investigations in Washington, but it's best to have them resolved quickly so both the teacher and parents can move on.

Early Learning licenses 5,400 home-based child care centers and 2,100 larger child care centers that watch a combined 175,000 children.

It was created from several programs scattered throughout state government in 2006.

Department separation

Agency director Jone Bosworth said differences with the Department of Social and Health Services, which houses CPS, has been causing the lag in closing abuse cases.

"We realized last year, when constituents brought it to our attention, that we weren't functioning as well as we could together," Bosworth said.

The abuse-related cases make up 19 percent of all complaints about child care centers, or 87 in the last three-month period, Bosworth added.

Her agency and DSHS agreed to improve resolution time, with steps such as notifying each other within one day if a case has been downgraded from abuse to a licensing issue.

Cheryl Stephani, who oversees CPS, noted her agency was refocused on emergency reports of abuse in 2005. It responds to those within 24 hours more than 90 percent of the time.

Just because a case has not been closed does not mean it wasn't investigated, she stressed, noting that in many cases it could be a matter of turning in paperwork to one agency or the other.

"One of the things that all of us didn't think about enough was OK, how are we going to make sure this communication flows?" Stephani said. "That's what we really ironed out and worked hard on."