The Hechinger Report – Sarah Butrymowicz and Jackie Mader
“Mississippi’s weakly regulated child care system often perpetuates dangerous conditions for babies and young children by failing to hold centers to minimum standards or help them improve, a review of public records by The Clarion Ledger and The Hechinger Report found. Interviews with workers at 30 centers and a review of 393 inspection reports and 79 complaint investigations from centers in central Mississippi reveal that regulations are inconsistently enforced, assistance for centers is often minimal and punishments don’t always lead to better conditions for children. The complaints included allegations that children were hit by workers, sexually assaulted by other children or sent to the hospital after being injured. The investigations that followed were often superficial, according to documents filed from February 2013 to December 2014, obtained under the state’s Public Records Act from the Department of Health’s Division of Child Care Licensure.”(more)