Unlicensed Homes Go With Territory

The need for day care--the 1990s issue for mayors, supervisors and presidents--is acute in an area such as Orange County, where mushrooming housing developments are being filled with young, dual-income couples.

Orange County has enough room in licensed child-care facilities for more than 55,000 children, records show. But the unmet demand may have created an underground network of unlicensed homes that experts say could be almost as large, according to county Social Services Director Larry Leaman.

Unfortunately, there are cases in which parents might face the “dilemma of having to put their kids in an unlicensed place or nothing,” Leaman said.

“We get 400 to 500 reports of unlicensed homes per year and, frankly, the follow-up inspection is a problem,” he said. “We move in and the parents of the kids rally around the (care) provider; we get bombarded from parents fearful that they are going to lose their provider.”

The licensing issue was thrust into the spotlight this week after three toddlers at an unlicensed North Tustin day-care home fell into a swimming pool. One died and two others suffered permanent brain damage. The home had been ordered twice to stop caring for children, authorities said Friday.

Day care is clearly a hot topic in Orange County.

When KOCE-TV in Huntington Beach aired a program on day care last January, it received about 550 telephone calls, more than it had for any other show.

The Children’s Home Society of California, a nonprofit organization that maintains a list of licensed day-care space available in Orange County, received 33,000 inquiries last year. The society’s telephone number for information is KID-CARE.

In fact, the first place parents should check when searching for a day-care center is the Children’s Home Society, county officials say. It is authorized and funded by the state to provide such a referral service, which is maintained on a computer log.

Kristin Keith, program manager for the society, said its listing includes more than 1,400 child-care homes that can accommodate up to 12 children each, and another 650 child-care centers, many of which are licensed for more than 125 kids.

Because there is a shortage of space, however, finding a home to meet the price, location and quality of service requested is sometimes difficult.

Some Kind of Search

“It depends on the age of the child and where they want it,” Keith said. “They may not have it near your home or your work. It may take some kind of search to locate care in the area they want.”

Keith said the average cost of child care for children under age 2 in Orange County is $82 a week and can range beyond $125 a week. For preschool-age children up to age 5, Keith said, the average cost is about $75 a week.

Leaman said the county is conducting a detailed survey of child care in Orange County to determine exactly how much the demand exceeds the supply.

Both he and Keith said, however, that the greatest imbalance is in southern Orange County, where much of the new home building is taking place.

Leaman said the county has contracted with the Children’s Home Society to try to recruit more people interested in providing child care, particularly in the southern area of the county. Keith said the society is planning an advertising campaign to do just that.

Record Checked

In order to obtain a license to provide child care, an applicant is checked for a criminal record and for tuberculosis. Then, inspectors survey the house or facility the care-giver proposes to use to ensure that it meets certain safety requirements.

Toxic chemicals and medicine, for example, must be kept in a secured cabinet. And the rule for pools is that they be surrounded by a 5-foot fence with a self-latching gate.

Then, the day-care homes are required to be re-licensed and inspected again every 3 years.

Leaman warned, however, that the quality of care and the degree of safety still can vary significantly, even among licensed homes. He stressed that parents should inspect prospective care providers themselves, sometimes unannounced.

“Today’s self-closing pool gate could be tomorrow’s broken fence,” he said. “The real message is that a license means the facility meets certain minimum standards; it is not a guarantee of high-quality care.

“I draw a parallel to a driver’s license: Yes, you passed the driver’s test and have a license, but we all know there are drivers we would not want to ride with; and there are also good and bad--or marginal--day-care centers.”

State Responsible

The state government actually is responsible for the monitoring, policing and licensing of day-care facilities. But in order to provide a more concentrated effort, Orange County has been performing the task for more than 20 years. Most of the costs have been reimbursed by the state.

Two weeks ago, however, the county’s budget problems forced it to abandon that arrangement. With the supervisors’ recent approval, the state will take over the full responsibility for the monitoring job in July.

Mary Kaarmaa, in the state Social Services Department’s Orange County office, said it hopes to hire eight inspectors and two supervisors to maintain the same level of service the county has provided.

Day care also has attracted the attention of local politicians, as well as President Bush, who has proposed a child-care package for low-income parents.

Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez steered a measure through the county government last year that now requires developers to provide space in their projects for new day-care centers, or to contribute to a growing fund that will be used to build day-care centers.

The fund now has about $60,000, and the county is planning to establish a committee to decide how it should be spent.

BROOKS FAMILY DAY-CARE PROBLEMS Chronology according to the Brookses, their neighbor and Dianne Edwards, director of day-care licensing at the Orange County Department of Social Services. July, 1988: Nancy Reed, who lives next door to Orvel and Diane Brooks, calls the Orange County Department of Social Services to warn that old lawn mowers, an abandoned car and other debris littered the back yard of the Brooks home, where children were being cared for. July, 1988: A Social Services caseworker goes to the Brooks home and issues a cease-and-desist order because children were playing around the car and woodpile and because of “inadequate fencing” separating the play area and the family pool. August, 1988: Diane Brooks attends an orientation session with Social Services agency workers on how to run a family day-care home and how to go about submitting applications to operate one. She is interested in obtaining a “small family home” child-care license in which not more than six youngsters can be watched at one time. January, 1989: Social Services receives an anonymous letter from a parent who had been to the Brooks home but decided not to put an infant child there because of concerns about the pool and the fact that the home was not licensed. January, 1989: A Social Services caseworker returns to the home for the second time, finds that nothing has changed since the first visit and issues a second cease-and-desist order. Diane Brooks tells the caseworker that she intends to comply with regulations but lost her original paper work pertaining to obtaining a license. She requests and receives additional papers, which she files later that month. February, 1989: Social Services sends a follow-up letter to the Brookses, stressing the importance of following regulations and obtaining a license. Officials had decided not to seek criminal prosecution of Brookses or the physical closure of the home. February, 1989: To comply with the caseworker’s concerns about the children playing near the old car and woodpile, Diane Brooks erects a new fence with its own gate, enclosing the back patio area of the home. March 30, 1989: While Carol Brooks steps inside the house to change an infant’s diaper, three toddlers manage to open the gate and walk toward the pool just yards away. They are found in the water by Orvel Brooks. ORANGE COUNTY CHILD*-DROWNING LOCATIONS, 1982-1987

Site Number Residential swimming pool 41 Spa/hot tub 14 Apartment/condo pool 6 Bathtub 5 Lake 3 Beach/ocean 2 Ice cooler 1 Bucket of water 1 Not ascertained 5

* Less than 5 years old. Sources: Orange County Trauma Society and National Drowning Prevention Network  ORANGE COUNTY CHILD*DROWNINGS, 1970-1987

Drownings per Year Drownings 1,000 Population 1987 11 n/a 1986 18 n/a 1985 13 0.08 1984 10 0.06 1983 11 0.07 1982 15 0.10 1981 12 0.09 1980 19 0.15 1979 15 0.12 1978 11 0.09 1977 17 0.14 1976 14 0.11 1975 20 0.16 1974 18 0.14 1973 12 0.09 1972 21 0.16 1971 17 0.13 1970 17 0.14

* Less than 5 years old Sources: Orange County Trauma Society and National Drowning Prevention Network