OAK CREEK, Wis. — New questions surround a troubled Oak Creek daycare. This comes days after an employee at a KinderCare on South Howell was arrested and charged with having cocaine in her backpack at the facility.
Those drugs were also found in a one-year-old's system. However, this isn't the first problem KinderCare has had.
On the Department of Children and Families (DCF) website, Oak Creek KinderCare has more than 20 state violations in the last three years. Those violations include staff witnessing other staff being aggressive and tossing children.
Despite its history, the state still gives the daycare five stars. TMJ4 went to find out why.
"The first thing I'm going to do if I'm searching for a daycare is look at the ratings, and if the ratings tell me five stars, why would I go against that," Liz Brown said.
Brown's a community advocate working with the family of one-year-old Prince who police said was exposed to cocaine at his daycare.
Every KinderCare in the Milwaukee region, according to the state's website, has a five-star rating. That's despite all 14 locations racking up more than 560 state violations over the last three years.
"Thanks to your investigation, and others, that all of this is coming to light," Brown said to reporter Jenna Rae.
Brown and baby Prince's family want to know why the Oak Creek KinderCare has a five-star rating given its state violations and police finding cocaine inside of it. We went and asked folks at DCF.
"Within the childcare area, there's kinda two pieces. So, there's the regulation side which focuses on the health and safety of a provider," DCF Communications Director, Gina Paige, said.
Paige is referring to the state violations.
"Then there's Youngstar, which builds upon the health and safety and is looking at that quality aspect," Paige said referring to the star ratings.
Paige explained that the Youngstar program is voluntary and can also be dependent on a daycare's outside accreditation. So, if a daycare has an accreditation and maintains that, five stars will automatically be applied.
That's despite the facility violating state regulations.
"We really encourage parents to look at both pieces when they're looking for child care and also visiting the center," Paige said.
Paige explained it's best for parents to do a surprise visit at daycares and do as much research as possible.
"What is the protocol when you guys launch an investigation when drugs are involved, and why are you not shutting down the facilities even temporarily," Rae asked Paige.
"We're going to look at the history of the provider, and kind of look at the situation, is it an isolated incident, is there multiple staff involved. If we were to go in and immediately close this provider down, we would have dozens of families who are unable to go to work," Paige responded.
DCF wouldn't comment on the Oak Creek KinderCare directly as its investigation is still ongoing.
TMJ4 also spoke with Oak Creek Police Thursday to see why they aren't shutting the daycare down. While police said their investigation is also still ongoing, they don't have the jurisdiction to shut down the facility, it's up to the state.
To check ratings, state violations, and more when it comes to daycare in Wisconsin, click here.
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