Child Injury Lawyer Blog
By Robert Chaiken, Attorney and David Wolf, Attorney
Published by Child Injury Lawyer Network
Three children were tragically killed in a kitchen fire that occurred at the children’s Houston, Texas, residential daycare. Rick Flanagan, spokesman for the Houston Fire Department, said the victims ranged in age from 18-months to 3-years-old. The day care’s operator, 22-year-old Jessica Tata, was the only adult supervising the 7 children the day of the incident. According to Texas’ child care rules, Tata should not have been caring for more than 6 children older than 18-months. Michael McAndrews, a 50-year-old witness who lives near the residential day care, said Tata stated she went to the bathroom at the facility and upon returning the kitchen was on fire. When firefighters arrived at the scene, Tata and two injured children were outside the flaming home, the other five children were trapped inside. Firefighters had to use thermal imaging cameras to find some of the children. Firefighters had to perform CPR on 4 children, who were unresponsive. Some children sustained burns while others suffered from smoke inhalation. Jennifer Hart, spokeswoman for Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital, stated that one child was transferred to the Shriners Hospital burn center in critical condition and two other children were at a Houston hospital, one also in critical condition and the other in good condition. Around a year ago, the facility, which is registered as a “child-care home,” was cited by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services’ Child Care Licensing division for not having a fire extinguisher. DFPS spokeswoman Gwen Carter said Tata had correct the problem. For more see 3 children tragically killed in a Houston, Texas, child-care home kitchen fire.
A day care owner in Adams County, Pennsylvania, who is accused of not reporting acts of child sex abuse at her day care, has waived her arraignment. The former Aspers day care employee recently pleaded guilty to molesting six girls who attended the day care, which is located at the 100 block of Clines Church Road. Police were notified by Children and Youth in May 2010. After local police were presented with the sexual abuse allegations, other mothers of victims came forward. A sign is posted on the front door of the residential day care reading that the child care center is closed until February 21. Sadly, the Adams County Child Advocacy Center stated the number of reports of child abuse is increasing, also calling it an epidemic. A statistic in a local Pennsylvania newspaper stated that one in every four girls and one in every six boys will be sexually abused before they turn 18-years-old. All the six girls in this case who were sexually abused are now receiving help. Raymond Messinger, the man who admitted to sexually abusing the young girls, will be sentenced in March 2011. For more read 
Officials in Manassas Park City, Virginia, have officially released notice of several violations of the city’s extended child care program, Costello Park Preschool after allegations of sexual abuse against an 8-year-old child were found to be true. An 8-year-old girl who attended the day care program told her mother in September 2010 of separate incidents where she was sexually abused by a program employee in July and August 2010. After the child’s mother learned of the accusations, she reported the information to the City Parks and Recreation Director, Catherine Morretta. Morretta then notified local police, which lead to an investigation by both the city police and social service officials. The Virginia Department of Social Services Division of Licensing Programs also began an investigation since the day care is licensed by the state.
A Minnesota mother is demanding answers after her sun ran out of 2 day care centers, two days in a row. The incidents occurred on November 4 and 5, 2010. Two-year-old Ryker Hacker walked right out the front doors two separate Southern Minnesota day care centers. Jackie Downing, Ryker’s mother, said she was referred to day care provider Rosemary Marquette from her neighbor. On Ryker’s first day, Marquette said she briefly turned her back to help another child when Ryker suddenly went wandered off. Marquette said she did what any other parent or adult would do and started searching form him on her own. However, police say they did not receiving a call from Marquette reporting the child missing. In fact, police received calls from concerned citizens after they saw Ryker in the middle of a busy street, 45 minutes after the child went missing. After much persistence, Downing successful in charging Marquette with a criminal misdemeanor charge of child neglect. The second incident occurred the very next day at Caring Arms day care facility in Nicollet, Minnesota. Sonja Shay, director at Caring Arms, says the center called police and found Ryker walking towards his home a short time after he went missing. To read more on this story please see 
The U.S. Defense Department picked the Virginia Star Initiative and other state programs that assess child care centers and list their results to help military parents searching for day care facilities. These programs have proved to have far-reaching benefits, improving day care centers nationwide in teaching and quality standards. The Virginia Star Initiative works with Smart Beginnings Greater Roanoke, a nonprofit, with the state on the program. The process: Smart Beginnings evaluates an individual child care facility then evaluates the facility. It follows up with training and funding. The facility is then rated by the Virginia Star Initiative. Centers that volunteer for the program are given two additional years of support so they can continue to improve. One star shows the center has exceeded the minimum standards of state licensure and expectations. Five stars in perfect. A four star program, for example, represents a day care center that far exceeds the state minimum in teacher training, class size and classroom environment. Centers are initially hesitant to undergo the evaluation. However, if day care providers learn the benefits of monitoring their day care facilities will improve dramatically. In fact, the day care centers that did undergo the process improved 50%-60% from their initial evaluation.
A 20-year-old day care worker was recently arrested and charged with cruelty to a juvenile. Alexis Binford was booked into Ouachita Correctional Center after she bit a child under her care at the day care center. In the arrest affidavit, the infant’s father told police his son had a bite mark on his cheek. The report also revealed that Binford texted the mother of the infant admitting she had bit the child, however, Binford claimed she was playing with the child when the incident occurred. According to the director of the day care center, Binford was in a room with multiple children including the infant victim. The oldest child in the room was 1-year-old and had only 2 teeth – the bite marks on the infant’s cheek reveal that his was bit by a person with more than 2 teeth. Although Binford told the child’s mother the incident was an accident, Binford did tell police the child had been crying non-stop, she could not make him stop and thus, felt overwhelmed. There was an incident in November 2010 where Binford’s own child was bit on the ear. Binford told West Monroe police she did not know who did it and denied doing it herself. If you would like to read more on this story please see 
In Las Vegas, Nevada, CBS News Now 8 covered the important topic of video surveillance in day care centers and other safety measures in place at Las Vegas day care centers. The report was in response to an arrest of a day care worker on abuse charges. While the abuse charges / allegations from incidents did not take place at a day care center or to day care center students, the fact that a day care worker was arrested for child abuse related charges is quite unsettling. What assurance does a parent have that a child is safe in a day care center? What precautions are taken to protect a child in a day care center? Are criminal background checks completed for all employees of the day care center? While criminal background checks are required by Nevada State law, a person, who does not have a criminal record, will be permitted to work at a day care centers. Thousands if not millions of child predators in the United States do not have a criminal record because they have never been caught.