Here’s what SC annual safety inspections say about Beaufort County home day cares
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Troubles in S.C. home day cares
For the first time, South Carolina is now inspecting day cares operated in people’s homes. What inspectors are finding is disturbing.
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In one home day care center in Beaufort County, state inspectors discovered pet feces everywhere.
In another, two infants were sleeping in car seats.
And in several others, caregivers did not have mandatory criminal background checks on file.
Following the passage of a 2014 state law, the S.C. Department of Social Services began inspecting home day cares annually, giving parents and the public their first look into these small child care operations where most providers care for up to six children in their private residences. Twenty-nine such day cares operate in Beaufort County today.
Nine local centers are still in operation that have been cited for a deficiency since the law went into effect, according to DSS’ South Carolina Child Care database. Six of those day cares are located in Beaufort and three are in Bluffton.
Here’s what inspectors found.
Pet feces, unsafe conditions, and missing paperwork
In December 2015, inspectors found pet feces on the floor throughout Beverly Green Hamilton’s Old Shanklin Road home day care in Beaufort. The current registration was also not posted in the home at the time of the inspection.
While Hamilton’s home was registered as a home day care in 2015, no kids were being cared for at the time, she said in a phone interview Wednesday. She said she has just begun watching a child in her home day care in the last few weeks.
She said parents looking for childcare or inspectors can come by her home if they would like.
“It doesn’t bother me,” she said. “I just started.”
Meanwhile, a home day care run by Elisa Nix-Jones out of her Shanklin Road home in Beaufort was cited on two different occasions for health and safety violations. In September 2015, a crib being used in the home day care did not meet state requirements.
Then less than a year later, Nix-Jones was cited for multiple violations in a May 2016 inspection. Two infants were found sleeping in car seats and another child had a dirty diaper. Also, Nix-Jones did not have multiple forms of paperwork providers are required to have, including safety certificates for the cribs in the day care and liability statements from parents.
South Carolina requires all child care providers to use a crib approved by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission for every infant in their care. Child welfare advocates agree the safest way to put a child down to sleep is alone, on his or her back and in a crib.
Nix-Jones did not return phone messages left at the day care Wednesday and Thursday morning.
In February 2017, Monique Magwood-Badger’s home day care on Broad River Boulevard in Beaufort was cited for an unqualified caregiver who was missing the required criminal background checks being left alone with three children.
During the same inspection, the home day care was cited for not having safety certificates for two cribs.
Both citations were a result of paperwork issues and have since been resolved, Magwood-Badger said Wednesday.
“(The caregiver) was actually qualified but it was that fine line where that renewal was coming up and (the paperwork) hadn’t been processed yet,” she said.
She said it was a similar situation with the cribs, where they did meet safety standards but she hadn’t sent in the crib certificates to DSS at the time of the inspection.
“When it comes down to the safety of the children, I am 110 percent OK with the unannounced visits (from DSS),” she said. “I say that because I put myself in the parents’ shoes as well.”
Magwood-Badger said home day cares are a growing business at the moment and DSS should do what it can to encourage home day care providers. She also encouraged parents to do their research and make sure the day cares they are trusting with their children’s lives are registered or licensed because those centers are held accountable.
‘One bad actor ... is too many.’
Despite the citations, state Rep. Shannon Erickson — a Beaufort Republican who operates child cares centers and is the former vice chair of the Joint Legislative Committee for Children — said the majority of childcare facilities in Beaufort County do follow by DSS’s rules and regulations.
“I cannot speak specifically to one type of child care but out of those that are regulated, on the whole, yes, there are more child care offerings that comply and follow rules, regulations and best practices than those who do not,” she told the Island Packet on Thursday. “That said, one bad actor harming a child intentionally or unintentionally through negligence or being uninformed, is too many.”
She said families should be most concerned with unregulated care.
There are a lot of children who are in care with “no oversight whatsoever,” such as summer camps and programs before and after school that DSS says are not under their purview because they fall under a “four hours or less” licensing exemption, Erickson said.
The six other home day cares that have received citations during DSS inspections, according to the database, include:
▪ May 2015 - A person in the home day care on Brilliant Lane in Beaufort did not have the required criminal background checks and cribs being used did not meet the safety requirements. When inspectors returned in July 2016, the day care was cited a second time for a person in the home not having the required criminal background check.
▪ February 2016 - A person in the home day care on Pine Grove Road in Beaufort did not have the required criminal background check.
▪ January 2017 - A home day care on Wentworth Drive in Bluffton was missing paperwork proof of CPR/First Aid certification.
▪ March 2017 - During an inspection of a home day care on Simmonsville Road in Bluffton, an infant was sleeping in a pack-n-play instead of a crib, another child’s enrollment file was missing and an emergency plan was not in place. DSS requires child care facilities to have a plan in place to address emergency medical situations and evacuation in case of an emergency or disaster.
▪ June 2017 - A pet in a home day care on Tucker Avenue in Beaufort did not have current vaccinations and an emergency plan was not in place.
▪ August 2017- A home day care on Oscar & Daisy Lane in Bluffton did not have an emergency plan in place.
This story was originally published February 21, 2019 at 5:47 PM.
