Here are five key takeaways from her investigation:
1. What we found: Day care centers in Ohio are licensed by the Department of Children and Youth, which conducts inspections annually and when complaints arise. DCY revokes about 20 licenses a year, officials there say.
2. Children injured: A police investigation into injuries suffered in July by three infants at a top-rated Huber Heights child care center shows a lack of documentation, lapses in leadership and improper state reporting, according to records obtained by the Dayton Daily News. Read that story here.
3. Centers facing closure: Four area child care centers, one in Springboro, two in Dayton and one in Harrison Twp. were notified since the beginning of 2024 they could lose their licenses to operate, according to a Dayton Daily News analysis of state licensing data. Read that story here.
4. Details: In one case, a child was reportedly left on a bus for more than 5.5 hours. In another, inspectors allegedly found the center had created and posted a fake fire inspection report.
5. State tool: You can research inspection reports and day care ratings at Ohio’s Early Care and Education Search Tool. But the information there is limited.
- The day care center in Huber Heights has a gold star rating while it’s facing a lawsuit and a former worker is facing criminal charges after three infants were injured.
- The state agency took more than a month to provide us with records about other centers facing potential closure.
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