DAY-CARES CAUTIOUS ON WORKERS

A random check of child-care providers in Missouri, Nevada, Wisconsin and South Carolina revealed that some employees were convicted of prostitution, theft and even endangering the life of a child.

Investigators with the Department of Health and Human Services and the FBI checked 500 providers in the four states and found 61 employees in those agencies had been arrested or convicted prior to their employment.

HHS officials blame the problem on a lack of a national policy requiring background checks on all child-care providers.

Missouri is a step ahead of some states, requiring employees and volunteers working in licensed day-care facilities to undergo a child-abuse registry check.

Directors of area facilities said their checks usually go further than the required child-abuse and neglect screening through the Missouri Division of Family Services, which oversees licensing. Each screening costs $5, and day-care providers have the results back from Jefferson City in about two days.

Cathy Clark, who co-owns A Small World Pre-school on North Kingshighway, said she usually hires people referred to the agency by current employees or university teachers. Her eight employees, who oversee 100 children ages 2-12, have all been screened despite good references.

"I can't imagine just hiring a person off the street without an excellent recommendation," Clark said. "We have even hired people with good recommendations who we later let go. They weren't up to our standards."

In addition, the 5,400-square-foot facility is left open with no solid dividers so that teachers and visiting parents can see each other at all times.

Clark said all of her background checks have come back clean.

The story was much the same at day-care centers in Jackson and Chaffee. Mary McClanahan, assistant director at the Kiddie Kollege in Jackson, said the 12 employees at her center had clean background checks.

Still, it is a necessary precaution, she said, at a time when cases of abuse at day-care centers occasionally make the news.

Norma McGennip of Kinderhaus Day Care in Chaffee said she would support a national requirement for criminal background checks. Her center has five employees, all of whom passed the Division of Family Services screening.

The criminal background check service is available for a fee, but Deanna Long, child-care licensing supervisor for the Cape Girardeau County Division of Family Services, said parents can do a lot themselves to research day-care centers.

Information about area centers, including substantiated complaints about the quality of their care, is available at the division office. Parents need only make an appointment to see it.

"This kind of information is very valuable," Long said. "Parents can learn more about a facility, its strength and weaknesses. We have been told by every expert in the field that the most significant factor in the safe care of children is the staff."

Southeast Missourian photo/Lou Peukert

Southeast Missouri junior Jerome Days tipped the ball into the basket in front of Fairfield's Shannon Bowman (35) and Greg Francis (12) during River City Classic action Friday night at the Show Me Center.