AJC probe finds shocking daycare safety gaps in GA

Children hurt or put in danger at daycare, but the state's quality ratings stayed in place. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation found 350 Georgia daycares kept their star ratings after serious, and we're talking very serious, safety violations over the past decade. So AJC investigative reporter Samantha Hogan is joining us now with what her team uncovered through their investigation and also just what parents need to know about this. So, Samantha, thanks for being with us today. Thanks so much for having me. All right, let's dive into this because there's a lot here, and this is so important when you're talking about the safety of our children. We'll begin with this one. You know, parents see a daycare that's advertised as quality rated. They expect that to mean something. That's just the bottom line. So what did your investigation find? Yeah, so Georgia has a three-star quality rating system for daycares. You've probably seen it. They can get either one, two, or three stars. But what the AJC's investigation found was that hundreds of children had been seriously harmed at these daycares in the past decade. And so when we're talking about serious harm, we're talking about children that suffered chemical burns. We're talking about skull fractures and even a tragic case here in Atlanta where a baby boy died after he was left in an unsafe sleep position. And so these incidents are occurring, but then the rating is not changing. And so the AJC's investigation really focused on this flawed rating system and how it could be misleading to parents about the actual safety conditions within some daycares. You mentioned that some of the ratings stayed the same. In some situations, they ended up with a higher rating after the fact. Specifically with this one, you mentioned some of the horrendous injuries that children were suffering. A little girl in Powder Springs suffered chemical burns that she sustained at daycare. So walk us through what happened and how this was one of those situations where their rating actually went up. Yeah. So this was a this was a horrible incident where a bucket of bleach was brought into a one year old's classroom to clean toys. And then it was left accessible to these children. And so this little girl suffered chemical burns on both of her arms. And what state investigators later uncovered that was equally disturbing was that the director at the time told the employees to lie to the state about what had happened. And so this daycare ultimately got a $5,000 fine from the state, but it had remained open and its rating went up to two stars and it is continued to have a two star quality rating from the state. Wow. I want to mention this too, for those watching at home, we have a QR code that's there on the side of your screen. We're doing this in real time. So if what you're hearing, if you've got questions about it, all you have to do is scan that, ask your question. And if we can, I'll get that on air and be able to ask Samantha about that. So something to keep in mind as you're listening to all of this. But did you find in looking at these daycare centers, you mentioned 350 over a decade, were these mostly isolated incidents that you saw or were there some repeat offenders? There were definitely daycares where there was one serious incident where a child was seriously harmed or put at risk of harm. But then there were disturbing patterns at other daycares. One of the places that we looked at in Lithonia had been cited at least nine times since 2017 when it had first earned a quality rating. And for children being seriously injured, and three of their employees had recently been arrested, one of which had poked thumbtacks into children while they were watching a movie, another who had slapped a child across the face. Both of those women ultimately were sentenced to prison. But the entire time as this daycare was yo-yoing between being in good standing and deficient with the state's standards, it kept its quality rating. And what that really means is that it also was able to get taxpayer money. So the state subsidizes child care for low-income families, which is a great program because it helps working families stay in the workforce. But because these places also have quality ratings, they can get bonuses attached to their ratings. And so more than $5 million went to this daycare since 2017 that was having all these repeat issues. And then on top of that, had gotten over $500,000 in bonuses. And so it was only in 2025 that the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning, which is in charge of regulating daycares, was able to withhold those bonuses when something serious had happened at a daycare. But what we're not seeing them do is yet is strip ratings away from daycares and being transparent with parents that this might not no longer be a quality daycare. Let's talk more about these ratings. So many interesting things from your article in this investigation, but one of the things being is that the people who are assigning these ratings don't even review a daycare's safety record. So how does the state explain that? So the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning is really the watchdog over Georgia's daycare industry, and it's in charge of licensing. If you're going to operate a daycare center or a daycare out of your home, you need to be licensed here in Georgia. And so they do two visits a year to inspect and monitor that people are following the state's standards, you can voluntarily enter the quality rated program in which you submit a portfolio and you have a person come out and essentially look at how the adults are interacting with children in that classroom. You are assigned that rating, but that rating is good for three years and it's not reevaluated after a serious incident occurs and so while we see licensing continue to come look make sure that they're adhering to it it's not then being reviewed by quality rated when they're assigning these ratings and they're not stripping away ratings when something goes wrong. Samantha the state has said that its approach the way that it does things it helps daycares to correct problems that are seen and just keeps childhood care available to families so what did your reporting show about whether those fixes actually ended up being lasting? You know, we saw some pretty significant fines against daycares, one up to $10,000 after a seven-month-old infant suffered a skull fracture at a daycare down in southern Georgia. It's hard to say, though, exactly what the lasting effect was. We definitely saw maybe it was just one incident at some of these daycares, though it was a very severe incident. But then we see places like the daycare that I just mentioned where they've had nine severe safety violations in the past couple of years. So it's hard to say exactly how lasting those changes can be. So Georgia is saying that changes are planned for 2027. So what are they saying? I mean, what's expected to change next year? Yeah. So actually, Georgia's officials came to us and said that they plan to introduce a new probationary status, where daycares could lose their stars if they do harm to a child or have a significant incident. It's not in policy yet. So they shared in broad overview of what their plans are. This could have an effect on those bonuses that we had talked about. But they are still in the process of collecting public comment and deciding exactly how they might move forward with this. Samantha, we do have a question from a viewer. We're going to put that up and I'm going to ask you this. Let's take a look at what someone wrote in and said. Thank you so much for doing that, by the way. They said, how do I know if my child's daycare is safe? I think that's probably something that many of us are wondering. So what do you say? Yeah. So the AJC also published a parent's guide to go along with our investigation. And it walks you through step by step how to do very important things. Like first, verify through the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning that your daycare is licensed. Then the inspection reports are online, so you can go and see where the daycare is not meeting state standards. Then you might also want to look and see if there's any enforcement actions that the state has taken. Why did they find the daycare? There's generally a synopsis of the incident that occurred. So, and then I think it's also just remaining an active parent, going into your daycare, make sure you're counting heads, make sure that your child's not coming home with bruises, ask questions, be engaged, and just remaining, just like continuing to background your daycare as your child is enrolled there. We have another question. Let's Here's what they're asking. What can be done about children being abused in daycares? How can you get a report from the state about best daycares with good ratings? And then there's another question on the I don't know if you have time to tackle this part, but they said, when will they have pre-K three free enrollment? Which is another question and maybe a separate investigation that many of us are wondering about. But let's tackle that first part just about, you know, what can be done about children being abused in daycares? How can you get a report from the state? You know, I think the most important thing that you as a parent can do is be vigilant. And I have seen plenty of these incidents where and the family going to the police department. And so I think it's very important that you ensure that the incident has been reported to the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning, which is also known as DECAL. They want to know about incidents. But then I also think it's important in certain instances to make sure that the police are aware and they're able to investigate it. There have been workers that have been charged with battery, with child cruelty. This should not be happening. This is a very vulnerable population. Everyone wants their child to be safe at daycares. And I think the vast majority of daycare owners also want children to be safe at daycares. So it's making sure that the proper authorities are being notified so they can investigate. But you can also see past investigations online. So DECAL has a website called DECAL Fast. You can search any daycare. The inspection reports and then any kind of enforcement actions are available online. It just takes looking through some PDFs and reading. certainly worth taking the time to read this entire article looking into this investigation that you and your team did incredible work and and i gotta tell you quite shocking i think for any of us that have heard any even small part of it so samantha hogan with the ajc samantha thank you so much for joining us today for sharing the investigation and for answering questions on the spot from folks at home as well thanks so much we appreciate your time