The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "child care providers" ...
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Startribune:The Day Care Threat
Children had been dying in Minnesota child care at an alarming rate and state regulators and industry leaders had overlooked the problem until our reporting laid bare a series of safety failures that led to the spike in deaths. The reporters made dozens of public record requests and analyzed hundreds of cases to uncover wide problems in the state’s in-home daycare system. They almost all the deaths occurred at in-home daycares, which have more lax regulations than centers. The series also uncovered dozens of cases of sexual abuse, gun violence and negligence that harmed children in the state’s in-home daycare system. It revealed how Minnesota has some of the weakest training and supervision rules in the country for these in-home daycares. The reporters also discovered that critical safety records that would help parents identify problem providers were not accessible to the public. The response to the series was swift and sustained. State regulators implemented changes to improve infant safe sleep practices and they are planning legislation this session to shore up some of the safety problems. The series also highlighted how the lack of information about child care deaths is a national problem.
Tags: Child care; safety; daycare system; sexual abuse; gun violence; negligence
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Welfare Waste
An ongoing KSTP-TV investigation, led by reporter Mark Albert, has examined waste and the potential for fraud in Minnesota's public assistance programs, including free-wheeling rules that allowed welfare to be used for tattoos and liquor, withdrawn at ATMs inside casinos and bingo halls and a systematic lack of oversight in state-funded child care that can lead to millions of dollars in payments every year to families and providers that do not qualify.
Tags: public assistance; welfare; oversight
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Cashing in on Kids
Child-care programs were setup to encourage low income parents to get and keep their jobs. This program covered the cost of child care, but as it turns out "millions of taxpayer dollars" were misused by corrupt parents and daycare providers. Further, this series revealed a number of drug dealers can be tied to the daycare providers. Also, it revealed how regulators overlooked the problem, lawmakers and their weak laws, and workers trying to bring this to attention and their bosses shutting them down.
Tags: child care; corruption; scamming; cost; criminals; daycare; children; fraud
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The Evidence Gap
The nations' medical bill last year exceeded $2.7 trillin -- nearly as much as the projected total cost of the Iraq war. If it were medical money well spend, there might be few cries to "reform" the American health care system. But by some estimates, one-third or more of the medical care received by patients in this country may be virtually worthless. The nation is wasting hundreds of billions of dollars each year on superfluous treatments -- money that otherwise could by spent, for example , on providing health insurance for every child, woman and man int his country who currently have no coverage. A team of science and business reporters from The New York Times set out to explain how and why the United States is spending so much on health care with so relatively little to show for the money, They discovered a gaping chasm between scientific evidence and the practice of medicine. In an in-depth series of articles, told through real doctors and patients, and based on information they dug up that was frequently unflattering to medical providers, companies and regulators, the Times team documented many disturbing instances of "The Evidence Gap."
Tags: health care; CT angiograms; Avastin; cancer treatment; reckless spending; Food and Drug Administration; mammograms
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A Question of Care
"The reporters found that in the most recent 18 months, at least five children died in child-care facilities and 13 children received injuries serious enough to prompt the closing of the facility. It also discovered homes cited for housing too many children, having unqualified providers and failed to meet other minimum standards of care."
Tags: open records; FOIA; Department of Human Services; children; nursery school; day care
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Criminal Child Care
In Texas no background checks are required for people to receive money from a federally funded child care program for providers. This allowed criminals to receive money from the program. Other cases of fraud occur. The program was intended to help needy parents, yet usually they were the ones on the waiting list.
Tags: child care; background check; family; parents; needy parents; fraud; criminals; federal funds; child care providers
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Little Court of Horrors
This investigation examined how well juvenile courts handle child protection matters and how the children, whose plight has just recently become a matter of public record, are faring. The investigation found that the reform intended to strengthen the state's child protection system has dramatically increased the rate at which children are being taken from their parents ---permanently. The law was intended to fast-track cases, but it does not allow the time or provide the services families need to address the matters that landed them in court to begin with.
Tags: child abuse; child court; foster care; sunshine law; open records; social services
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DSHS fraud
A KREM-TV investigation of the state of Washington's licensing practices for day care operations revealed huge loopholes. "Those loopholes allowed known child molesters, convicted felons and illegal aliens to receive a state license to care for numerous children and receive tax dollar subsidies in the process."
Tags: state licensed day care providers; Washington; child molesters; felons; illegal aliens; tax dollars; loopholes; TAPE; TRANSCRIPT
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Criminals to the Rescue
A three-month, computer-assisted investigation of Florida's EMTs and paramedics revealed that the state certified hundreds of felons with violent criminal records to work as emergency care providers, despite convictions for violent crimes such as rape, child abuse, and even murder. It was discovered that these people were getting certified because the Florida Department of Health does not perform any type of criminal background check on its applicants.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; Florida Department of Health; EMTs; paramedics; criminal background checks; emergency care providers
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Who's Watching Our Kids?
An investigation by the Quad-City Times "revealed how 19 people with criminal conviction slipped undeteched onto a list of state-sanctioned home child-care providers in Iowa's Scott County. It uncovered holes in the system used by the Iowa Department of Human Services to screen such providers for criminal backgrounds. It also revealed that the state collectively paid those convicted providers $91,323 in public money last year to watch children of low-income households."
Tags: Iowa; criminals; conviction; child care; state government; oversight