The potentialsuspensions, in addition to the more than 100 day cares that had paymentssuspended last year, would be the result of new background check requirementsthat could bar providers from the program if the center operatorsand in somecases their employees or the people they live withhave been convicted ofcertain crimes.
Everyone would agreethat a person convicted of any kind of child molestation should be permanentlybarred from being a day care provider, but the current law championed by Gov.Jim Doyle is mean-spirited and counterproductive, the providers’ advocates say.
On Tuesday,Stephanie Hayden, spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Families(DCF), did not confirm that the suspensions would result after the newregulations go into effect on Feb. 1.
Hayden said DCFwants to ensure that day care centers are safe.
Suspensions for Old Violations and Pending Charges
The newbackground checks will be conducted quarterly on licensed providers, Haydensaid, and annually on household members and employees. Background checks candelve into an individual’s past for some crimes committed after he or sheturned 12.
According toa Dec. 7, 2009, DCF memo sent to day care providers, “even if the Departmenthas issued a license or allowed a person to reside at a child care center witha criminal conviction in the past, the Department is now required to revoke thelicense if the licensee, a household resident or an employee has an offensethat will permanently bar that person.”
Providerscan be permanently barred for committing small-scale offenses such as foodstamp fraud, even if such offenses occurred years ago.
The newregulations also affect those who have been charged but not convicted ofcertain crimes, even though Americans are supposed to be considered innocentuntil proven guilty.
The memostated that “under the new law, the Department is required to suspend a childcare license if the licensee, a household resident or caregiver has any pendingcharges for a crime included on the revised crimes list.”
In addition,rules passed in 2009 allow DCF to immediately and indefinitely suspend paymentsto Wisconsin Shares participants if the agency “reasonably suspects” theprovider has committed fraud.
Theproviders contend that the new regulations are unfair, arbitrary and penalizepeople who may have made mistakes decades ago.
State Rep.Jason Fields questions the wisdom of new rules that don’t allow people torehabilitate themselves and find meaningful work.
“We’ve allmade mistakesI’ve made a ton of them,” Fields said. “But because they weremistakes, should that prevent me from being able to live a life of success?Should it prevent me from doing something that I’m passionate about? Should Ibe held guilty for the rest of my life? I don’t think that’s right. They [theproviders] have every reason to be concerned. It is to a point where it isunfair.”
IsThis Legal?
Theproviders feel they have been targeted unfairly by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, DCF and state legislators seekingpeople to blame for alleged fraud in the state-run Wisconsin Shares program.
Theincreased pressure began last year, when the Journal Sentinel began reporting on alleged fraud within theprogram and sensationalized a few cases cherry-picked for its front page.Responding to the Journal Sentinel’ssensationalized reporting, Doyle, the new head of DCF Reggie Bicha and certainlawmakers vowed to root out fraud in the program.
Theresulting regulations passed by the state Legislature correctly targetedegregious or intentional fraud. Doyle, however, stripped out the word“intentional” from the legislation, which allows DCF to immediately andindefinitely suspend payments to day care providers that it “reasonablysuspects” of committing fraudan extremely low burden of proof.
Many of theoverpayments in question, the providers argue, are due to clerical errors andthe state and county’s sloppy administration of the Shares programnotintentional fraud.
Thesuspended providers appealing their cases complain that the state doesn’t haveenough evidence to prove their suspicions. In effect, the providers have toprove their innocence after losing their livelihood, instead of forcing thestate to prove its case before suspending payments.
In themeantime, roughly 100 day care centers have been closed down and hundreds ofparents are scrambling to find day care for their children so they can go towork because someone in the DCF suspects that there may be a violation.
“The appealsprocessI’m not saying the judges are doing anything incorrectly, but I have tobelieve that there are people who are not looking at this from a fair point ofview,” Rep. Fields said. “These ladies are getting their whole livelihoodstaken away before they’re even found guilty of anything.”
Providerssay the state has lost some of their records and that former employees arebeing pressured into making false allegations about their former bosses.
Fields haswritten a letter to state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen questioning thelegality and constitutionality of the suspensions and appeals process.
“Some ofthisyou have to wonder if it is constitutional,” Fields told the Shepherd. “Can you be found guiltybefore you’re actually found guilty?”
AWitch Hunt
The mood atSaturday’s day care providers’ meetingwhich drew about 100 peoplewas at timesangry, frustrated, supportive and positive, depending on the topic and speaker.But mainly these providers are scared that their livelihoods will be taken awayfrom them based on the state’s “reasonable” suspicions and a dragged-outappeals process. Even if vindicated, the providers will have lost five monthsor more of their income and their good reputations.
The effectsof the new regulations, suspensions and what they term a “witch hunt” have beendevastating, both personally and professionally, for the providers in theWisconsin Shares program.
Onesuspended provider said that three of her former employees, without incomesince a well-publicized crackdown in mid-September, are now homeless. Anotherwell-respected provider was recently suspended over an infraction she committedwhen she was 18decades ago. Yet another provider, suspended over violationsshe had known nothing about and now disputes, had always been held up as anexample for others to follow.
But theproviders still in business are feeling threatened, too. While more providerswill likely be suspended on Feb. 1, thanks to the more stringent backgroundchecks, the names of the providers have not been released.
At least oneprovider was visibly shaken when she talked about how she had left herprofessional job to open a day care center a few years ago. She now owns thebuilding that houses the center, and wouldn’t be able to afford its mortgage ifthe state suspends her payments based on some clerical errors.
