After a 19-month-old girl died last year in the care of a Bucks County babysitter who strapped her in a car seat for a nap, local child abuse professionals dug into what went wrong and how similar tragedies could be prevented.
Their recommendation -- better car seat education for parents.
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| Alivia Sawicki died while being cared for |
Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services, which had a representative at the local review, agreed with the findings in its subsequent report. The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office, also present at the review, found no laws were broken.
But months later, after the state and local reports were released, outside child advocates found both reviews overlooked apparent violations of state standards for child care providers including whether the babysitter was state licensed.
The report states the babysitter was watching nine children the day Alivia Sawicki died, but it says nothing about whether that contributed to her death. The report’s recommendations focused solely on car seat safety.
The review report stands in stark contrast to two other near-death reviews last year involving Bucks County infants also harmed while in the care of a babysitter who was not a family member. One of those incidents occurred three days before Alivia died and the second about a month later, according to the county and state reviews obtained by this news organization.
Both of those local and state reviews made recommendations that focused on child care issues.
The apparent disconnect between the circumstances surrounding how Alivia died and the findings of two state-mandated investigations into her death raises questions about how the reviews were done. Under a 10-year-old law called Act 33 of 2008, local and state child welfare and abuse experts are required to conduct separate, in-depth reviews when a Pennsylvania child dies, or nearly dies, under suspicious circumstances.
The purpose of the local and state reviews is to provide a window into the normally confidential world of child abuse and neglect probes, identify strengths and weaknesses in systems that serve children and families, and highlight emerging trends that might endanger children, according to the law.
But child advocates contend that Alivia’s case magnifies what happens when the state-mandated reviews focus narrowly on the role child service systems played in an incident, while overlooking details identifying broader issues that impact communities, such as the potential dangers of unlicensed child care providers.
“This one child’s death is showing how complicated and convoluted the whole Act 33 process has become,” said Cathleen Palm, founder and executive director of the Center for Children’s Justice in Berks County. “Often the main topic is what did child welfare do or not do, instead of what are the root causes of what happened or contributed to the death.”
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Alivia suffocated to death on June 16, 2017, after she was not properly strapped into a car seat for a nap and left in a second floor bedroom unchecked for an hour, according to authorities and the death review.
The review reports stated that when she was found by a 14-year-old relative of the babysitter who went to wake her, it appeared the chest buckle on the car seat pressed into her neck when the toddler tried to get out of the seat.
The babysitter, Jaimee Lee Gorman, 36, of Bristol Township, was watching nine children the day Alivia died, the reports said, adding that Gorman sometimes watched up to 13 children a day.
Pennsylvania requires state licensing for child care providers who watch four or more children at a time who are not their own children, grandchildren, foster children or stepchildren. Licensed child care providers also must follow quality and safety standards including requirements that children be supervised at all times. It also forbids the use of ties or straps to restrain a child’s movement. Forbids volunteers under age 16 from assisting child care providers. Operating an unlicensed facility is illegal.
It was not until eight months after Alivia’s death, when this news organization started an investigation after obtaining copies of the death reviews, that the district attorney’s office reopened its criminal investigation into Gorman, who was charged March 9 with operating an unlicensed facility, a third-degree felony when a death occurs.
Bucks County Children and Youth Director Lynne Kallus-Rainey said in an email that the number of children in Gorman’s care was discussed at the July 12, 2017 death review meeting. The county report redacted the names of panel participants, but noted attendees included police, the county coroner’s office, county and state child welfare representatives, the county’s mental health department and drug and alcohol commission, and the Network Of Victim Assistance.
A Bucks County social worker assigned to the case, who also participated in the review, said she had “numerous” conversations with authorities after Alivia’s death about the number of children in the Gorman home, Kallus-Rainey added. A state DHS representative participated in the review. Bucks County Children and Youth officials also notified the state licensing bureau about the number of children in Gorman’s care after it received a report about Alivia’s death, Kallus-Rainey added.
But no details about those child care discussions made it into the six-page report. The local and state reviews mentioned only that Gorman was no longer watching any children, had moved out of the Bristol Township home after the death, and Gorman was not related to Alivia or her 3-year-old brother, who was also left in her care.
DHS spokesman Colin Day confirmed a licensing investigator went to the Gorman house twice after Alivia’s death, but no one was home. The case was closed after “authorities” said children in Gorman’s care the day of the death were all family members, which would exempt her from licensing requirements and regulations, Day said in an email response to questions.
But according to the probable cause affidavit in Gorman’s criminal case, she told Bristol Township police that she did not have a state license to provide child care services and that more than four of the children she was watching the day of Alivia’s death were not related to her.
It is unclear whether Bristol Township police, who have not responded to requests for comment about its investigation, participated in the county death review. The report redacted the name of the participating police department.
Kallus-Rainey declined comment on whether the relationship between Gorman and the children she was watching was made clear to the review team, stating she could not comment on items not included in the written report.
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Under the Act 33 law, county review teams must have six members with knowledge in the prevention and treatment of child abuse. It encourages, but does not require, including individuals with early childhood education and child care knowledge and experience.
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| Alivia Sawicki |
The second-level state review is done by representatives of the Bureau of Children and Family Services, the Bureau of Policy Programs and Operations, and the Deputy DHS Secretary’s office, according to the law.
None of the 19 Bucks County panelists who participated in Alivia’s death review had any identified child care experience, according to the report. Bucks County had a licensed day care operator as a regular review team member until the person moved out of the county, Kallus-Rainey said. She did not recall when the person left, but said it was before Alivia’s death.
Local child advocates believe that had a child care professional been part of the review, the final report would have flagged the state violations and connected the alleged unlicensed nature of the home in the recommendations.
“In this particular situation, someone with that type of background and experience may have delved into some of the aspects of the case that were not as fleshed out as much because they have a greater knowledge and background of the law,” said Haven Evans, a training director with the Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance.
The number of children Gorman was watching highlights the need for better oversight and training for family day care home operators and a statewide media campaign educating parents what to look for in out-of-home child care -- not better car seat education for parents, said Frank Cervone, executive director of the Support Center for Child Advocates in Philadelphia.
“This review would have been more meaningful with a child development professional at the table to help the group think about how much time and attention each child might demand,” Cervone added. “As well the rules and regulations on child care are themselves technical, suggesting need for a child care expert in case of such as this.”
Palm added that even if a local review misses something involving regulations or child services, the state review should connect the dots, since it oversees child welfare, services and programs and has that deeper knowledge base.
“The review doesn’t mesh with circumstances of the death,” Palm said. “If the state was really seriously looking at the report, they shouldn’t have missed the violations.”
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