• In June 1994, the state found that Perreault had let a child in her care ride a bike unsupervised. The child fell off the bike and hit his head, and was taken to a hospital for tests, according to state records. He was not seriously injured.

• In January 1995, a DHS day-care inspector found that Perreault gave a child a wrong dosage of medicine for epilepsy. ''Although she was confused about the amount to give because there was masking tape on the bottle, she did not call the parent to verify the correct amount,'' according to a DHS report.

  The report stated Perreault gave what she thought was the correct amount ''but (it) turned out to be only half of it.''

• In June 1996, the state received a complaint alleging that Perreault allowed day-care children to wander around without proper supervision. The complaint alleged that children were playing by a trash container on the road and also walking into the woods. There is no record showing that the state investigated the complaint.

Jim Chaplin, the supervisor of day-care licensing, said he doesn't know why the state did not take action against Perreault.

''If we had more staff, we would probably spend more time working with her,'' he said, but added, ''She's one of those who needs a lot of help. We should have pulled the trigger.''

Perreault said she was upset by the state's findings. She said the complaints were either overblown or were misconstrued by state inspectors.

Perreault said two day-care children did go down to a lake without her permission with one of her own children, who was 13 at the time.

''There was somebody down there that (one day-care child) knew. She got out on the raft with this person. It was nobody that I knew,'' Perreault said. ''A homeowner who lives down near the lake, she called me and told me what had just happened. I packed up the other kids and we went down and got the child.''

Perreault said the child who went out on the raft may have been about 6 years old.

Perreault said she never gave a child a wrong dosage of medicine and never lets small children out of her sight.

She said older children have been allowed to ride their bikes on camp roads ''but not on main roads.''

In the case where a child fell off his bike and hit his head, Perreault said, she had verbal permission from the child's parents to let him ride bikes.

Perreault acknowledged that some people she knew visited one day with stolen goods in their possession and that they showed a gun to children. ''But I had no idea what they had done and I had no idea anything was being shown around. I was out in the kitchen. I didn't know anything was going on until after the fact,'' she said.

In general, Perreault said, the state cannot be believed. ''I think the state is screwed up as always. We are supposed to have an inspection here every year,'' she said.

''When they don't show up here for two years to inspect, (that shows) they are not on top of things.''