Child sex abuse and dangerous infant sleep practices, two hazards documented in an ongoing Star Tribune investigation, have prompted regulators to shut down dozens of licensed in-home day cares in Minnesota, but they are hardly the only violations that turn up in state licensing records.
The newspaper found 760 instances since 2002 when regulators closed down licensed home day cares, including cases where inspectors found providers sleeping or drinking on the job, physically abusing children, cramming too many children into their homes, and children wandering away because providers failed to monitor where they were.
Just last May, a child in a St. Paul home day care lost five toes after being run over by a riding lawn mower.
The suspensions are uncommon and don't necessarily reflect the quality of care provided by roughly 11,000 licensed home providers across the state.
But they do reveal a unique reality for in-home day care. Any environmental hazards or family problems present in the home can spill over into the day-care operation and place children at risk.
Since 2007, regulators have suspended the licenses of 13 providers because known sex offenders were living in their homes. In the past three years, 19 providers had their licenses suspended because of domestic altercations, some of which occurred in front of the day-care children, records show.
Fourteen cases of suspected criminal activity in the day-care home have resulted in suspensions since 2010. Just last year, there were two fights involving guns while children were in the day cares.
The problems in family child care are distinct from the challenges in larger child-care centers and underscore the need for constant supervision, said Jerry Kerber, the inspector general of the state Department of Human Services. Providers need to make sure children aren't getting into areas of the house that might have power tools or weapons, for example, or left alone with other household members who aren't approved caregivers.
