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| Alivia Sawicki (l) and Jaimee Lee Gorman (r) |
“Everybody knew she was watching kids,” Copechal said.
Everybody, that is, but state regulators. They didn’t know about Gorman’s unlicensed and allegedly illegal business until after a 19-month-old girl she was babysitting died of suffocation on June 16, 2017. A state report says Gorman was watching nine children at the time, three times the limit for an unlicensed home day care.
The death of Alivia Sawicki in Gorman’s care inspired a three-month investigation by this news organization, which found evidence of dozens of unlicensed and possibly illegal child care providers in Bucks and Montgomery counties openly advertising online. Reporters obtained the information through publicly available sources state regulators acknowledge they don’t use, such as the U.S. Census, state business filings, municipal records and IRS data.
State officials acknowledged the Department of Human Services doesn’t actively search for illegal child cares and only investigates after someone complains. After receiving a list of 70 suspected unlicensed centers from this news organization, the state said it was investigating 19 businesses, and had issued one cease and desist order.
The state said other centers were “closed,” yet some told us they still were operating.
Informal and affordable
Nearly 2 million U.S. children under age 5 attend some type of home child care each week, according to the national nonprofit Child Care Aware of America.
Home settings are most popular with parents of infants and toddlers looking for a more informal, intimate and affordable child care experience. Home-based child care in Pennsylvania costs an average of $155 a week per child, versus $233 at a larger child care center, according to Child Care Aware.
But the smallest child care providers also are the ones most likely to fall outside minimum state health and safety standards, putting children at risk for harm and undermining state and federal efforts to improve child care quality, according to child care professionals and studies.
“It’s an underground thing people know about, but don’t do anything about,” said Minnesota attorney Tom Copeland, an expert in home child care businesses. “Are parents turning in illegal providers? I doubt it.”
Infants and toddlers are healthier and safer in child cares where quality standards are in place, according to child care experts and studies.
“That is the safety net. No one should be operating a program unless they are meeting all the licensing rules and regulations,” said Richard Fiene, a retired Penn State University behavioral science professor who has studied unlicensed child care in Pennsylvania. “No one should be operating below that floor of quality.”
The licensing process
In Pennsylvania, a home-based child care provider can watch an unlimited number of family members, as well as three children who are not family, without needing a license. The only caveat is they cannot care for more than two infants and three toddlers under age 3 at the same time. Licensed home child-care providers can watch up to six children who are not related to them.
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| Barbara Kristiansen |
Pennsylvania’s licensing requirements are extensive. Home child care operators must complete a two-part orientation within 12 months before opening a business; if an applicant fails to open within a year, the process restarts.
Providers must be a high school graduate or equivalent. FBI and state police criminal background checks and child abuse clearances are required for anyone over 18 living in the home; staff must be certified in CPR and first aid, and are required to complete annual child development training and more.
Applicants may also be required to obtain variances or other special approvals from local municipalities. A local use and occupancy permit is required for a state child care license.
Earlier this year, Barbara Kristiansen started $150,000 in renovations at her Warrington home to turn it into a home day care. In March, she received a permit to renovate the basement into a child care center for up to six children, as well as a use and occupancy permit for the business, according to township zoning records.
Months later, a sign planted on the front lawn says the business is accepting enrollments for summer and fall. A website and Facebook page promote the day care as “small by design.”
But the child-friendly basement classroom and jungle gym in the backyard were empty as of early July. Kristiansen said she’s still waiting for the state to issue her a child care license, a process she started in February.
“I was amazed at the process to get to be a small, little home center. I’m not saying that’s bad. That’s good,” she said. “If you’re a novice at this, you’re not going to know the seriousness. You may think you’re just babysitting or playing with kids, but, you know, watching someone else’s most important possession is a really big responsibility. You want to find out all the information you can. This is a business.”
But not everyone sees it that way, Kristiansen added.
“I know, personally, at least 10 people running unlicensed day cares, and that’s within a 10-mile radius,” she said.
Parents unaware
Since home day cares are considered less formal settings, many parents and even providers don’t ask about licensing or don’t think it’s needed, Copeland said.
Kelly Taylor learned about licensing when she was interviewing a home child care provider she eventually hired.
“To be honest, she (the provider) was the one who mentioned it,” said Taylor, whose now 7- and 8-year-old children spend summers with Donna Archer, who runs a state-licensed child care out of her Bristol Township home.
First-time mom Jenny Salvatico, also of Bristol Township, was surprised to learn the amount of training and paperwork required to license home child cares. Her 1-year-old son also is in Archer’s care.
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| Donna Archer |
“I just thought people did this because it’s an extra way to make money as a side gig, or to stay home with their kids,” Salvatico said.
Kathy Watson, R-144, of Warrington, and chair of the House Children and Youth Committee, believes resistance she has seen to more third-party oversight of home child cares is rooted in cultural views that government should not regulate anything that happens in private homes.
“They take the money, but they don’t see themselves as a business because historically that wasn’t considered a business,” Watson said. “Culturally, we need to educate people across the state that this is a kind of business that is worthy of regulation because it’s not producing widgets, these are children.”
Death of a child
The death of a child while in the care of people other than family appears to be a relatively rare event, but it happens more frequently in an unlicensed setting, or in a private home, according to state records.
An analysis of state reports show at least 14 children in Pennsylvania have died in the care of unlicensed child care providers since 2008, compared to 11 at licensed providers. Twenty deaths occurred in homes over that time span, records show.
A national study released in 2005 found that children watched in private homes were 16 times more likely to die than children at child care centers, and had a higher risk for drowning, suffocation and shaken-baby syndrome.
In a study released in April, Washington state pediatrician and SIDS researcher Rachel Moon concluded that unsafe sleeping situations were “particularly acute” with unlicensed home child care providers who lacked training and were unaware of new research on safe sleeping.
At least seven Pennsylvania infant deaths in child care settings have been ruled as SIDS-related since 2008, and state-mandated death reviews for those cases mentioned the infant was placed in an unsafe sleeping position or environment.
Two-month-old Dylan Johnson was among them.
The Butler County coroner ruled Dylan died of Sudden Unexplained Infant Death after he was found unresponsive in a playpen, where he was placed unsupervised for a nap for at least 30 minutes. The manner of death was left undetermined, according to a state-mandated review of the circumstances surrounding his 2015 death.
But what was clear was Dylan was one of 12 children in the care of an unidentified woman described in the report as a “babysitter.” Among them were eight infants and toddlers, three more than state regulations allow for one adult.
The death review failed to suggest the woman was operating a suspected illegal child care. Instead, it said the babysitter “did not consider herself a day care, she just helped people by babysitting,” and she “rarely” had as many children as the day Dylan died.
The woman was not charged criminally, but the state issued a cease and desist order, which would make it “very difficult” for the woman to obtain a child care license in the future, according to the report. But she could still watch up to three children at one time as a legally unregulated provider.
Tough to investigate
Roughly two years ago, 28-year-old Rebecca Lane opened a home day care for children under age 5. She registered her limited liability corporation with the state. She promoted her business online. She hired an employee when she reached six children, though state regulations don’t require it.
She thought she was doing everything right.
Earlier this year, however, a state child care inspector showed up at her Bristol Township home to investigate a report she was operating illegally. Lane learned she was watching twice as many kids as allowed without a license.
“It was scary. I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Lane said. “I was very apologetic. I would never want this to happen to anyone.”
Since that day, Lane has been working to secure her state license and required local municipal approvals. She still watches kids, but no more than three at one time, she said.
Lane is cooperating with state regulators, but not everyone in her situation does. And the state is limited in its ability to act against unlicensed home day cares, since it has no authority over them.
“We regulate child care facilities, we don’t regulate people’s homes,” Department of Human Services spokesman Colin Day said. “It’s a different ballgame.”
Investigating and penalizing unlicensed child cares can be a long and potentially moot process in all but the most serious circumstances, as illegal operators can take steps to avoid penalties and slip back under the state radar.
Last year, Pennsylvania investigated 201 complaints of suspected illegal child care operations. It issued 68 cease and desist letters, including four in Bucks and Montgomery counties, according to records provided by the Department of Human Services and its licensing arm, the Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL).
How many centers were closed is unknown. The state doesn’t post information online about child cares it’s investigating. It also doesn’t post the outcomes of those investigations on its website.
State regulators also don’t actively look for suspected illegal child cares, instead relying on the public to report them, Day said.
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| Alivia Sawicki |
And finding evidence of an illegal child care operation can be a challenge. Absent a search warrant, the homeowner can order an inspector off a property. With no access, an inspector can only report what activity is observed outside, and what neighbors say.
After Alivia Sawicki’s death last year, state inspectors twice visited Gorman’s Bristol Township home, after receiving a report she was watching nine children the day the toddler died. No one was home either time. The inspectors were told the family had moved and left no forwarding address, according DHS.
The investigation was closed after local authorities told DHS that all the children in Gorman’s care the day of the death were her relatives, meaning she did not need a license.
Nine months later, though, the Bucks County District Attorney reopened the criminal investigation and charged Gorman with operating an illegal day care after authorities confirmed at least four of the nine children were not family members. The charge was later changed to endangering the welfare of children; if convicted, Gorman would be prevented from opening another licensed child care.
It is unknown if DHS reopened its investigation after Gorman’s arrest. It is not specified in the review of Alivia’s death, and DHS did not respond to a follow-up inquiry from this news organization.
Even after complaints are filed, it can take weeks before an investigation is opened, under current DHS policy. Complaints with an indication a child has been harmed must be started within five days, but it can take 15 days or longer for those deemed medium or low risk, said Tanya Vasquez, bureau director of certification services for the OCDEL.
A provider watching too many children is considered a medium risk, Vasquez said.
Inspectors have more than a month to make a final determination, which is then forwarded to a DHS deputy secretary to decide if a cease and desist order is warranted.
Child care professionals also suggest the number of child care inspectors the state employs could contribute to delays in investigations and weak follow up.
Pennsylvania employs 105 inspectors, and there are six vacancies, all in the southeastern region of the state, which includes Bucks and Montgomery counties.
That works out one inspector for every 75 licensed child care centers. That’s better than four years ago, when the ratio was 1:143, Day said. State legislators approved a funding increase to hire more inspectors in 2015.
But organizations like Child Care Aware and the National Association for Regulatory Administration, a national nonprofit association that represents human care licensing, would like to see the ratio closer to one inspector for every 50 licensed child cares. They believe that reducing inspector caseloads would ensure more frequent and thorough on-site monitoring and investigations.
Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance CEO and President Angela Liddle said the low number of inspectors was not a shock; most state agencies are underfunded and it leads to delays and backlogs.
“I’m surprised we don’t hear about the more abuse, more fatalities, more near-fatalities in some of these settings,” she said.
Pennsylvania day cares that are ordered to shut down have 30 days to appeal. And even after that deadline passes, the state has no legal authority to immediately shut down an illegal child care without an indication of imminent life-threatening danger, Vasquez said. The state must ask a judge to order closure, though it can issue fines that start at $25 a day.
Penalties can be avoided if the operator agrees to reduce the number of children to no more than three, which removes them from state oversight. The operators the state listed as closed who told this news organization they remained open claimed they reduced reduced the number of kids they were watching.
“We see that often,” said Diane Michel, an OCDEL program executive.
Michel also acknowledged that her agency is aware of home child care providers who have been issued “multiple” cease and desist letters after breaking promises not to take in more children than allowed without a license. She described those situations as “not frequent.”
Hard to find
Five years before Gorman moved into the rental home in the 1100 block of Fourth Avenue in Croydon, another child care business, “Ms. Stacy’s Child Care,” operated there in 2011, according to a Yellow Pages listing still available online.
The state has no record a licensed child care ever operated at that address. Bristol Township also has no record of issuing a use and occupancy permit or special exception variance for a home-based day care at the address, according to property records.
When “Ms. Stacy’s” closed and other details are unknown. A phone number listed for the business is no longer in service.
The ability for illegal child cares to hide in plain sight is unique, according to Copeland, the child care business expert.
“If I go into any town in Pennsylvania and open a restaurant without following regulations, I couldn’t do it. If I opened up, I’d be shut down immediately,” he said. “But I can open an illegal child care program and operate unimpeded for a long time, if not forever.”
Research shows that unlicensed home child cares typically have a high turnover rate, which makes it hard for regulators to keep track of them.
The number of unlicensed child care providers in Philadelphia jumped 9 percent — from 1,095 to 1,205 — between 2014 and 2016, according to the Reinvestment Fund, a city nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of low-income residents. But 25 percent of providers that were open in 2014 disappeared a year later; nearly 40 percent of those open in 2015 weren’t in business the year before, the study found.
U.S. Census and IRS tax data suggest there are an estimated 5,459 child care locations in Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties alone. But state records show roughly half that number are licensed providers.
Meanwhile, statewide the number of licensed family home child cares has declined 35 percent — from 2,647 to 1,727 — over the last four years, DHS data shows. Roughly half the number of licensed family home child cares are operating in Bucks and Montgomery counties compared to four years ago.
Pennsylvania is following national trends that show licensed home-based child care is declining as state and federal government efforts to better regulate them have increased, Copeland said.
The state toughened its requirements in 2015 requiring family home providers obtain regular operating licenses, which subject them to more intense DHS scrutiny, including, for the first time, unannounced yearly inspections and pre-opening inspections.
The new state rules were in response to 2014 changes in the federal child care subsidy program, which required that states implement stronger licensing standards for home child care providers receiving federal money. The federal change was inspired by calls to improve child care quality and ensure small child cares in private homes are following standards.
Tougher licensing standards may drive smaller child cares out of business if they can’t meet the minimum standards, said Fiene, the retired Penn State University professor. Whether more regulation encourages some of those providers to operate unlicensed is speculation, he added.
“My gut would be that for a small group of homes, this definitely could be the case,” he added. “I’m sure that many parents who need the child care to continue working will look the other way or justify in their own head that the care is just fine, even when it isn’t.”
Update: On July 13, Barbara Kristiansen obtained a license to operate the Children’s Learning Corner in Warrington, according to Ali Fogarty, communications director for the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services.
