VENTURA : Couple’s Care-Facility Licenses Revoked

The state Department of Social Services has revoked the licenses of a couple who operated a day-care center and foster home out of their Ventura duplex, a department spokeswoman said Thursday.

The couple, Barbara and Larry Knutson, were accused of hitting a 5-year-old foster child who was later removed from their custody, state and county social services officials said. The child displayed a bruise to a social service worker and said that the couple had hit him repeatedly.

“They don’t dispute that they hit the child, but they deny (that they caused) the injury,” said Dennis Trenton, a licensing supervisor for Ventura’s Public Social Services Agency, which licenses both day-care and foster-care facilities.

“Foster parents may not spank or hit a child under any circumstances,” Trenton said.

The Knutsons could not be reached for comment.

By not challenging the allegation that they hit the child in July, 1992, the couple surrendered their licenses by default, Trenton said. After a state investigation of the alleged abuse, social services officials decided last week that the couple should not be allowed to provide either day care or foster care for children.

The couple had a license for at-home day care for six children and were also licensed as foster parents for two others, Trenton said. Since the incident, however, no children have been in their care, he said.

There are 285 foster homes in Ventura County and more than 1,100 family day-care centers, Trenton said. He said about 10 of those licenses are revoked each year for such incidents.