Lack of discipline

CASE STUDY:
State's efforts fall short against Bangor day-care home

By Andrew Garber
Staff Writer

At right: Diane Watts has said complaints against her day-care operation in Bangor - 11 reports over the span of 11 years - are groundless, and that the state is harassing her. The Department of Social Services has recently suspended her permit to operate a day-care home and is asking a judge to revoke her license. Staff photo by John Ewing

Susan Ciresoli picked up her 5-year-old son at Diane Watts' day-care home in Bangor one afternoon in 1992 and knew right away that something was amiss.

The boy climbed into the car and seemed troubled. When Ciresoli asked him what was wrong, ''He just started crying, just sobbing,'' she recalls.

He said that Watts' teen-age son had sexually abused him when Watts was not around.

Ciresoli pulled her son out of Watts' care that day and called the state Department of Human Services. After a five-month investigation, the agency concluded that sexual abuse had occurred and found other problems at the home.

Ciresoli thought that would be the end of Diane Watts' day-care operation. But she noticed that Watts kept running advertisements in the local newspaper. She was shocked. ''If you don't shut somebody down for that (sexual abuse) what do you shut them down for?'' she asked.

When it comes to Watts, and the slipshod way DHS handles cases such as hers, maybe nothing.

The Watts case is a study in how the Department of Human Services can find that a day-care operation poses hazards to children - and still allow the provider to remain in business.

In all, 11 reports alleging problems at Watts' day-care home were filed by parents, a fire inspector and others between 1988 and 1998.

The reports ranged from complaints that the day-care facility was "filthy, dirty" to Ciresoli's complaint that her son had been sexually abused.

A DHS inspector recommended in 1993 that the agency close the operation, stating in a report that such action was the ''only way to protect children from incurring physical or emotional harm while in (Watts') care.''

Yet Watts remained in business.

Watts says the numerous complaints were groundless, that Ciresoli's child was not sexually abused at her home, and that the state is harassing her.

''I think that once you've had a complaint filed and investigated, from that point on you're flagged,'' Watts said.

DHS officials stand by the findings of their investigations. Jim Chaplin, supervisor of day-care licensing, said he's not pleased with how the case was handled.

''I don't think anybody, except maybe Diane Watts, is happy with the outcome,'' Chaplin said.

Most day-care operations are safe, but nationally, experts say, an estimated 12 percent are so poorly run that they pose a health and safety risk to children.

In Maine, DHS has received more than 2,000 complaints against day-care providers since 1990. Some providers, like Diane Watts, have had repeated complaints that have been investigated and verified by DHS investigators. Like Watts, many keep their permits to care for children.

DHS recently took action against Watts again. It has suspended her permit to run a day-care home and is asking a judge to revoke her license.

The move came in response to a complaint filed on Feb. 5 alleging unsafe conditions in Watts' home. The case is making its way through the court system.

If DHS prevails, it would be the first time the department has revoked an operator's permit.

DHS has the power to put day-care providers out of business by taking them to court, but the department cannot cite a single case where it has revoked a provider's license.

Since 1990, DHS officials say, they have tried to close down three day-care providers by asking a judge to revoke their permits to operate. But state attorneys settled on terms that allowed two providers to remain in business. One operator was given the right to apply for a new license after two years.

Even Kevin Concannon, the DHS commissioner, says his agency should be taking more aggressive action to protect children in day care.

''I think we have some wonderful people in Maine, but I'm certain many of them should have had their license removed,'' he said, promising more aggressive enforcement in the future.

DHS is charged with regulating about 3,200 day-care providers in Maine. The agency's files are replete with cases where the agency uncovered incidents of abuse, neglect and hazardous conditions at day-care operations, but took no disciplinary action.

The failure represents a breach of trust with parents, who rely on the state to regulate day-care providers and keep their children safe.

Weak enforcement, by itself, can create conditions that threaten the safety of children, said William Gormley, a professor at Georgetown University and a national expert on child care.

''If law enforcement is perfunctory, then fly-by-night day-care directors can behave with impunity and not clean up their act,'' he said. ''And that is terrible for children entrusted into their care.''

The difference between 'licensed' and registered'

However, Chaplin blames some of the state's inaction on the type of permit Watts has to run a day-care home.

Maine currently has a two-tiered system of ''registered'' and ''licensed'' homes.

Licensed homes must be inspected annually and comply with a book of regulations. Registered homes are not inspected and have virtually no rules to meet.

Watts runs a registered home.

DHS does not consistently respond to complaints at registered homes because there is little disciplinary action the state can take, Chaplin said.

''You may not like this answer, but with registered homes, (a complaint about being) 'filthy, dirty' is not necessarily something we'd go out on,'' Chaplin said.

DHS did investigate the first complaint filed against Watts, on Jan. 14, 1988 - two years after she opened her day-care operation in a large wood-frame home near downtown Bangor.

A parent alleged she arrived at Watts' home to find Watts outside with four older children while three infants were left unsupervised in a cold house.

''One child was upstairs screaming to get out of his playpen,'' the complaint stated. The woman also said the house was dirty.

The state investigated. Watts denied that she left children unsupervised and said ''housekeeping is not a priority,'' according to a report written by a day-care licensing inspector.

No disciplinary action was taken.

Four more complaints came in from 1988 to 1990 alleging problems at the home, according to DHS records.

They included allegations of dirty conditions in Watts' home, and lack of supervision of day-care children. Again, they failed to catch the state's attention.

State files suit to take away registration

That's when Ciresoli reported to DHS her son's allegation that he was sexually abused by Watts' teen-age son.

After investigating the allegation, the DHS worker filed a report on Nov. 3, 1992, that concluded Ciresoli's son had been sexually abused, DHS records show.

Ciresoli said she later got a letter confirming that her son was abused, but no other information.

DHS records show the case was referred to the Penobscot County District Attorney's Office. District Attorney Chris Almy said the case was not prosecuted because of the age of the children involved, and because the alleged abuse was not flagrant.

In addition to finding that Ciresoli's son had been sexually abused, the DHS investigation turned up several other problems:

• Watts' cellar was ''extremely cluttered with outdated food and other discarded items posing a question of both a health and fire hazard.''

• Watts had no heat in the day-care area.

• Watts' child-sized wooden picnic table was overturned and had nails sticking up.

• Watts left children outside unsupervised.

Ten months passed.

On Sept. 2, 1993, a day-care licensing worker reviewed Watts' file. Yet another memo was written.

This report revealed that one of Watts' paid helpers, interviewed by a state investigator, alleged that ''she opened a can of food only to find dead bugs in it.

''She stated that Diane had wanted her to remove the bugs and feed the food to the children. Another ex-employee told (a state investigator) that kids got treated like at an orphanage and that Diane was not able to take care of her own six children, never mind day-care children.''

The report concluded that Watts' day-care operation should be closed. ''Diane Watts' lack of supervision . . . has led to instances of abuse and demonstrates her inability to protect.''

This time DHS decided it should revoke Watts' registration and referred the case to the Attorney General's Office.

In Maine, it takes a judge to revoke a day-care registration or license, and DHS relies on state attorneys to make the case against a day-care provider in court.

On Oct. 8, 1993, the Attorney General's Office filed suit to take away Watts' registration.

Watts, during a recent interview, disagreed with the allegations made by the state.

The state was wrong about a day-care child being sexually abused at her home, Watts said. In fact, she said, the child of hers accused in the incident was not even in her house at the time.

Likewise, Watts said she never tried to get a helper to feed children spoiled food.

"She was fired over trying to use food that was oudated,'' Watts said. ''She was opening something and was about to serve something, and I said, 'Wait a minute, this is long outdated.' ''

AG's office agrees to settle the case

Yet 13 months after going to court, the Attorney General's Office agreed to settle the case.

In the Nov. 18, 1994, settlement, Watts acknowledged there were ''problems in her home which affected the safety of children and which amounted to practices which are detrimental to the welfare of children: outdated food, excessive clutter in the cellar and problems with her wood stove.''

The settlement let Watts remain open as a registered day-care provider and required her to keep her home clean, properly supervise children, and get training in caring for children.

The settlement required Watts to be in ''substantial'' compliance with the requirements for six months. It gave inspectors the right to visit periodically. If Watts did not comply, the state had the right to hold yet another hearing to discuss the matter.

Watts said the state's charges were not true and that she only signed the settlement ''because they were not going to give me my license unless it was acknowledged. They were threatening my sole source of income. I signed it to maintain my license and support my family.''

Christopher Leighton, the assistant attorney general who signed the settlement agreement for the state, said he could not clearly remember the case.

''I've dealt with thousands of cases. I'm not going to offer excuses for my bad memory, but it certainly isn't the result of stonewalling or not wanting to talk about this case,'' Leighton said. ''I'm fully confident that the decisions we made were fully appropriate.''

The court agreement, approved by Roland Beaudoin, the administrative court's chief judge, did not put an end to reports of problems at Watts' day-care home.

More complaints and a sense of frustration

The state did not investigate.

Six months later, on Dec. 4, 1995, another complaint was called in. This time the caller was an inspector working for the state Fire Marshal's Office, Garrett Bray.

Bray reported that ''the condition of (Watts') house was completely filthy.''

The Department of Human Services did not investigate.

Bray recalls contacting DHS to find out if anyone had followed up. ''The response I got is, they had been trying for years to do something about her and they hadn't been successful,'' he said.

Watts at the time had a state registration to care for 12 children under age 16.

Another five months passed after Bray's visit.

On May 6, 1996, the state received another complaint about conditions at the day-care home. Several weeks later a state inspector made an unannounced visit and determined that Watts' home was ''environmentally unsafe.''

Among the inspector's findings: