Breach of Trust - a Portland Press Herald special report

Part of

Human Services labored to keep day-care data under wraps

The staff

ANDREW GARBER has been a reporter for 16 years. He came to the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram in 1994 after working for newspapers in Idaho, Florida and South Carolina. Garber has received more than two dozen local, regional and national awards for his reporting.

He was part of the team that produced a series of articles in 1996 on the growing income gap in Maine; a series on commerical truck safety in 1995; and was part of the team that produced a series in 1994 on the crisis in the New England fishing industry.

TOM FERRITER, assistant managing editor, coordinated the reporting for this series and edited the articles. Before joining the Press Herald and Telegram, he worked at newspapers in Virginia and New Hampshire. He has worked at The Portland Newspapers since 1984, both as a reporter and editor.

JOHN EWING, photographer for the series, has worked at the Press Herald and Telegram for 17 years. He previously worked at newspapers in Biddeford and New Haven, Conn. He has won many state and regional awards for his work, including awards for a 1991 Telegram and Press Herald project on the Portland Irish community's roots in County Galway. He also photographed the newspapers' series on the Appalachian Trail and Henry David Thoreau's travels through Maine. Most recently, he traveled to Belfast, Northern Ireland, to cover the country's vote on the peace accord.

BRIAN ROBITAILLE edited copy and designed pages for this series. Robitaille, a Lewiston native who lives in Yarmouth, graduated in 1985 from the University of Maine. Formerly an editor at the Lewiston Sun-Journal, he has been employed at the Press Herald and Telegram since May 1994.

Four library assistants did extensive research for this series.

SUSAN BUTLER started work at the Press Herald and Telegram in 1970. A South Portland native now living in Scarborough, she graduated with distinction from the University of Southern Maine.

JULIA MCCUE began working at the Press Herald and Telegram in 1995. Born in Kansas City and raised in Denver, Colo., she lives in South Portland. A graduate of Smith College, she worked in Washington, D.C., as a researcher, writer and seminar manager for Congressional Quarterly. She has also been an editor and free-lance writer.

BETH MURPHY began working at the Press Herald and Telegram in 1973. Born in South Portland and currently living in Portland, she graduated from Cathedral High School and the University of Southern Maine. She previously taught in elementary school.

LINDA MADSEN has worked two stints at the Press Herald and Telegram - from 1966 to 1981 and more recently since 1987. She was born in Lewiston and was raised in Bangor and South Portland. A graduate of the University of Southern Maine, she has also worked as a Realtor in Las Vegas.

Human Services labored to keep day-care data under wraps

Getting information about day-care centers in Maine isn't easy.

Parents who call the Department of Human Services for information on a specific day-care provider can get the basics: whether a complaint has been filed, general explanations about what happened, and whether the complaint was found to be valid.

At first, that was all the information the DHS would give the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram.

It took a year and more than two dozen requests under the state's Right to Know Law to get anything more.

The process took so long because the DHS worked vigorously to keep the information secret.

For example, DHS officials initially claimed that they had no electronic database of complaints against day-care providers. The agency later acknowledged it had the data after all, but officials said it would take five months to deliver and cost $5,000.

The newspapers decided to create the database manually.

For the past decade, the state has kept a handwritten logbook of complaints made against day-care providers. The newspaper photocopied the logbooks and typed 1,100 complaints - all those filed between 1994 and July 1997 - into a computer.

The information was sorted to pick out day-care centers that had received multiple complaints or had serious allegations of abuse. The newspapers then asked the DHS for the files of those centers.

After several more months of negotiations, the agency agreed to turn over the files - with much of the information blacked out.

State officials used their black markers with vigor, obscuring names on public court documents. They even blacked out names in newspaper clippings in their files.

In all, files on 50 day-care providers were turned over to the newspapers.

The files documented that the state lets day-care providers get away with mistreating children. They formed the basis of the newspapers' investigation into child care in Maine.

By Andrew Garber