MILWAUKEE — For the second time in less than a month, a daycare worker in Southeast Wisconsin has been accused of physically abusing a child.
For parents who are concerned about finding care for their children, there are resources that give families more information about their daycare options.
Jamie Tramte Brassfield is an early childhood manager at Family and Childcare Resources of Northeastern Wisconsin. It is a non-profit resource center for regulated child care in Wisconsin. There are resource centers for every county in the state. Tramte Brassfield says it is a difficult time to find child care because the pandemic has caused a labor shortage in daycares.
“Now is a challenging time for families that are looking for childcare. There are not a lot of openings in child care programs,” said Tramte Brassfield.
That can limit options for parents, but Tramte Brassfield says it is their job to help connect families to safe child care. She says if you don’t start with a resource center, start by looking at licensed and regulated daycares and take a tour.
“If you're starting with an infant, you want to see the infant room and talk to the infant teachers. But you also want to see what's happening in the two-year-old classroom. What's happening in the four-year-old classroom? What about the school-age classroom? How do you feel with all of those spaces? Because the person who is the teacher in the infant room today might not be there tomorrow. They might be sick, and we know that turnover happens,” said Tramte Brassfield.
TMJ4 News contacted the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, which regulates daycares, for their advice on what families should do. In a statement, they suggested families in Milwaukee start with the Supporting Families Together resource center.
They also suggested families use the DCF YoungStar website to look up a daycare to see if they meet health, safety, and licensing standards. Tramte Brassfield has monitored daycares to check their YoungStar ratings for the state.
“The Young Star system is Wisconsin's quality, rating, and improvement system, and this is looking for qualifications that go above and beyond the basics of licensing standards,” said Tramte Brassfield.
According to DCF, through the Youngstar website you can find:
- Health and safety requirements
- Licensing or regulatory requirements
- Any quality (voluntary) standards met
- The date the provider was last inspected
- License type
- Any history of violations of requirements
Tramte Brassfield says to ask about those violations that are connected to a daycare’s license. Then, she says, a parent should trust their instincts.
“Sometimes I think we think about, okay, well, you're going outside, and you're feeding my child, and that's really all we look at, right? But if your child is going to spend eight to 10 to 12 hours there, you want to make sure that all of their needs are going to be met,” said Tramte Brassfield.
