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