25 Investigates: ‘Areas of risk’ identified in audit of state childcare agency

BOSTON — An audit of the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) found the agency failed to properly screen people who work at daycares and residential facilities and compromised “high-risk” abuse and neglect investigations.

The audit was released Monday afternoon by the Office of State Auditor Diana DiZoglio. DiZoglio said it was initially launched by her predecessor Suzanne Bump and covered the period from Jan. 1, 2021, through Dec. 31, 2022.

Bump had conducted a previous audit of EEC that revealed similar findings.

“Our audit team identified several areas of risk pertaining to issues surrounding child abuse and neglect,” DiZoglio told Investigative Reporter Ted Daniel in an interview Monday afternoon.

The 54-page audit report contains 9 areas EEC was found to be deficient, ranging from frequency of licensing visits at residential programs to EEC’s failure to update its language access plan every two years.

The audit looked at background record checks at 5,700 home or family childcare programs and found “23% were noncompliant with the required background record checks” based on a statistical sample.

A sample of residential programs found 98% of residential programs had at least one or more “missing components” of a background record check.

“We found significant issues with that and found that early education and care was not actually completing those background checks in accordance with their own rules and with regulations as they’re supposed to,” DiZoglio said.

The audit found 2 instances where EEC failed to review or initiate investigations of reports of suspected abuse and neglect of children at residential programs it oversees.

“EEC cannot determine whether children are at risk of abuse or neglect or ensure that reported incidents are addressed if it does not investigate all 51A reports,” according to the audit report.

The audit includes a response from EEC. An EEC official wrote “In the two instances identified by the Auditor, EEC licensors reviewed the 51A Reports, the programs completed internal investigations, EEC reviewed those internal investigations, and EEC ensured that the programs took appropriate measures to alleviate the health and safety concerns at issue.”

The audit reviewed how EEC investigated 94 investigations of “high-risk complaints” and determined EEC allowed licensing employees to conduct some investigations that should have been probed by EEC investigators.

“Specifically, 9 (10%) of the 94 investigations of high-risk complaints were conducted by an EEC licensor instead of an EEC investigator,” the audit report said.

“It’s really important that EEC handle these matters with a sense of urgency. That is why we will be coming back to Early Education and Care within months, not years, to ensure that they have implemented our audits recommendations,” DiZoglio said.

In May, 25 Investigates reported that 500 home daycare providers with open or closed criminal cases have passed EEC background checks since 2020, according to data obtained through a public records request. The request sought the number of “discretionary” background check approvals granted to licensed providers with criminal records in 2 of the 5 regions EEC oversees statewide. The Northeast and Greater Boston regions cover most of the eastern part of Massachusetts but exclude Cape Cod.

At the time, an EEC spokesperson said federal law gives states the ability to determine if an individual can provide care for and have responsibility for the safety and well-being of children for charges beyond the mandatory disqualifications.

In a statement Monday, a spokesperson for the state Department of Early Education and Care said, “Ensuring the health, safety, and wellbeing of children in early education and care programs is the top priority of the Department of Early Education and Care.”

“The performance audit released today covers January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2022, a period of time when many federal and state operations were temporarily modified in response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the statement said. “Since 2022, EEC has made significant progress in addressing the areas of recommendation, including initiating a comprehensive review and revision to the regulations governing residential programs, modernizing and improving the background record check process, revamping and updating the agency’s approach to language access, and hiring its first Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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