Big Business

     The windshield wipers kept beat to the music on the radio as Ann Bradshaw made her way down Highway 42, nearing the exit to South Bristol Boulevard. It was the third straight day of rain and, to make matters worse, the temperature was now hovering just above freezing. Ann usually didn't mind the extensive traveling her job entailed, but when the weather was bad it made her nervous to be out on the road. Within a few minutes, the exit came into view. Ann stopped at the end of the ramp and turned left. The traffic was already getting heavy with morning commuters and Ann hoped she could still manage to get to New Generation by 7:45. After all, the original complaint had specified early morning as the time when there weren't enough staff to look after the children.

      New Generation was part of a chain of child care centers that had originated in the city and had gradually expanded to include centers in numerous towns throughout the southeast portion of the state. The New Generation child care center off of South Bristol Boulevard had been in operation for about 2 years now. It was in a nice new building near the shopping mall-a convenient location for parents working in town to drop off their children on their way to work. The center served about 50 children from 6 weeks old to age 5 years. They also had an afterschool program that served an additional 20 children. The New Generation center off South Bristol and the longer-established New Generation on the north side of town were both within Ann's catchment area.

      About a month ago, the department had received an anonymous call reporting that the New Generation center off South Bristol didn't have enough staff to properly care for the children between 7:00AM and 8:00AM and that the children were often not being served milk for lunch as they were supposed to be. Ann had responded to the call by making an unannounced visit to the center and found them to be out of compliance on adult-child ratios. She also found them to be out of compliance on several other smaller issues. With regard to the milk situation, the director assured Ann that the children had been getting milk and, although there was an insufficient amount of milk in the refrigerator when Ann arrived, they would be sending someone out to purchase milk before lunch time. According to the director, the center was given a certain amount of petty cash by New Generation's regional office every two weeks and this money was used to buy milk at the local grocery as well as any other supplies they needed. Within a few days of her visit, the director mailed receipts of milk purchases for the previous month and this aspect of the complaint was written up as being unsubstantiated. Before leaving, Ann had made certain that the director understood the regulations about adult-child ratios and warned that, in line with departmental regulations, she would be making an unannounced follow-up visit within a month. This was the purpose of Ann Bradshaw's visit today.

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      Ann pulled into the parking lot of New Generation at 7:48AM. She took a last gulp of coffee from the insulated cup that always rode shotgun with her in the car, then grabbed her well-worn briefcase and her umbrella from the back seat, and headed towards the front entrance to the building. The lobby of New Generation was attractively decorated with a small, dark cherry table flanked by two Victorian-style chairs. A dried flower arrangement on the table further enhanced the welcoming appearance of the entry way. Ann noticed a large wreath of dried-flowers and eucalyptus on the wall opposite the table and chairs. This had been added since her previous visit, as had been a wallpaper border that wrapped around the lobby and extended down both walls of the hallway that led to the various classrooms. Ann couldn't help thinking that the dried flowers and the sophisticated paisley print of the border was a pleasant change from the cartoon characters that typically decorated the child care centers she visited. No one was sitting at the front desk, so Ann propped her umbrella against the wall and walked straight towards the infant classroom. Ann didn't like to give people too much time to prepare for her inspection. It was best to get in fast and see what was really going on.

      The infant room was large and spacious with white wooden cribs lining the side wall. Ann quickly took a headcount-7 infants and 2 staff members. So far, no problem with ratios. One of the women sat in a rocking chair, holding and feeding an infant who couldn't have been much more than 2 months old. The other woman was doing something near the changing table. The other 6 infants were all in the center of the room on a large royal blue carpet. They were sitting in baby carriers or lying on blankets and all had various toys nearby or a playgym suspended above their carrier. All of the babies seemed contented, but not one of them was actually playing with the toys that were near them. They were just sitting or lying quietly, mouthing their hands or looking around at their surroundings.

      The woman near the changing table approached and Ann told her that it was good to see they had followed through with the recommendations she made on her last visit by putting each of the children's names on their cribs. Ann checked the class roster, looked at a few of the activity plans that were required for each infant, and checked the dates on baby bottles that were stored in a small refrigerator in the classroom. Again, there were no real problems, only a few questions about the dates on the bottles of a baby who received breast milk. And, although Ann didn't challenge the teacher about the babies' activity plans, she still didn't approve of the way they were done. Like other centers who were part of large chains, the items on the babies' plans were taken directly from the chain's curriculum and they were all nearly identical. Furthermore, it was doubtful whether they were ever actually used by the staff or if they were changed very often. One thing, however, was certain: Although the activity plans satisfied the legal requirements, they didn't represent the intention behind the regulation.

      Ann completed her observations in the infant classroom as quickly as possible in order to get to the other rooms before the staff had a chance to cover their tracks. As she was walking out the door, two more parents were coming in with their babies. That made 9 infants and 2 adults-still within the legal limits. Moving past the entering parents, Ann spied two staff members a few yards down the hallway and overheard one of them saying to the other, "Call Theresa and, if you don't get her, maybe you could try Mary at home." Then one of the women went into a nearby classroom and the other woman approached Ann. "Hi! I'm Melinda." she said. "Mary's not here this morning, but she said she'd be in around 11:00. I'm in charge until she gets here."

      "Nice to meet you. I'm Ann Bradshaw. I'm with the Department of Child Development and here for a follow up visit to make sure the problems we found last month have been corrected. Mind if I finish up my headcount first and then check on a few other things?"

      "Uh, sure," replied Melinda. "We're a little short this morning. One staff member called in sick and another one called to say she'd be a little late-car problems or something, I think."

      "Is this the toddler room?" asked Ann, turning the doorknob and walking inside.

      "Yes," answered Melinda, trailing behind her.

      With her clipboard in one hand, Ann raised her other hand and began counting heads, pointing to the children around the room with the tip of her pen. Most of the children were playing in the center of the room around a kitchen area with tot-sized appliances and pretend food and dishes. A few were playing in a more remote corner of the room where shelves of assorted toys and books provided their entertainment. "One, two, three, four.." Ann finished her headcount. There were 8 children and 2 adults. Both of the women were sitting in chairs near the play kitchen area with their coats still on. Neither one of them was interacting with the children. "Are any of these children under 18 months?" Ann asked the women.

      "No. These are the two-year olds," answered one of them. "The younger ones is across the hall in Tina's room."

      "May I see your class roster?" asked Ann.

      "I'll get it," offered Melinda, who was still standing behind Ann.

      While Ann waited for the list, a little girl in a pair of red Osh Kosh overalls approached her holding out a toy cup. "Wanna dink?" she asked.

      "Why, thank you very much," said Ann, accepting the offered cup. She pretended to drink from it and then handed it back to the child. "Mmmmm!" she said. "That just hit the spot!". The little girl grinned back.

      Two more children approached and stood in front of Ann, their uplifted faces staring into hers. She greeted them and, noticing one of them had an untied shoe, she stooped down. "Looks like you're about to lose a shoe here. Let me fix that," she said tying up his sneaker. It doesn't look as though anybody else around here is going to do it any time soon, thought Ann. The two women seemed glued to their chairs where they still sat with their arms crossed over their chests and not a half of a smile between them. They might be providing supervision, thought Ann, but I sure wouldn't call this quality child care. Ann saw much the same thing in many of the other centers she inspected-women who didn't appear to enjoy their work with children and whose interactions with children were heavily weighted toward bossing them around and disciplining them. It would be different if their lack of interactions with the children was a function of her own presence in their classrooms, but Ann couldn't bring herself to believe that.

      After Ann inspected the class roster and wrote down the pertinent information on her clipboard, she moved on to take headcounts in the remaining classrooms. Melinda tagged along behind her. The younger toddler room was nearly full to capacity with 2 staff members present, thus complying with the required child-staff ratio. Ann noted that one of the women in this room was also wearing her coat, but now she realized why. The rooms were cold and, the farther back in the building Ann ventured, the colder they seemed to get.

      "It's kind of cold in here, don't you think?" Ann asked Melinda as they walked down the hall to one of the preschool classrooms.

      "Ever since they put in the new glass doors out front, it's been a little chilly first thing in the morning," explained Melinda. "The doors don't come quite to the bottom and there's a draft that comes through. We started not setting the temperature down so low over night so it won't take so long to heat up, but it's still drafty on days when it's colder like this."

      The preschool classroom was bustling with activity. Children were scattered throughout the large room, most of them playing with other children and various toys but a few seemed to be just standing around or wandering about aimlessly. One woman sat in a chair at the large table in the back of the room. A few children were standing near her but, at the moment, none of them were interacting with her. Although this woman wasn't wearing a coat, she did have on a large, bulky sweater and sat with both her hands in her pockets. Ann raised her pen and began to count heads-19 children. "I get 19," she said to Melinda. "Is that right?" Both women counted again-19. This was clearly a violation of ratios. "What are the ages of these children?" asked Ann.

      "They're all threes and fours," said Melinda. "Like I said, Theresa is running late, but she should be here soon."

      Ann looked into Melinda's face, but said nothing. Then, she turned and looked around the room again. A group of 4 or 5 children were playing with hamsters that were enclosed in colorful plastic cages on top of the children's cubbies. The children had dragged chairs over and were standing precariously on them to see into the cages and to tap the plastic tunnels that connected the cages to one another. The situation didn't look very safe to Ann and, although the woman at the table probably couldn't see what the children were doing on this side of the cubbies, she certainly wasn't making any attempt to find out. She just sat there with her hands in her sweater pockets. You'd think she'd make some sort of effort to look like she was doing her job, thought Ann. Especially when an inspector enters her classroom.

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      The last classroom on the hallway was used for the afterschool program. It was a large room with plenty of toys and games for older children, including a big, electronic basketball game that sat in the far corner. The second Ann entered the room, however, she felt the cold. "Wow!" she said to Melinda. "It's freezing in here. Is there any heat at all?"

      "I guess no one turned the heaters on yet," answered Melinda, walking towards the far wall. "This room has its own heating system." She lifted the panel on a motel-style heater that was situated under one of the windows and turned the knob. Then she did the same to a second heater under the other window. "It shouldn't take too long for it to warm up in here," she said, walking back to stand beside Ann near the door.

      Ann started to review the afterschool class roster that included a long list of children's names when Melinda cleared her throat and said: "I don't want to risk losing my job, but I feel as though I need to tell you about some things that are going on around here."

      "What's that?," asked Ann. This was obviously going to be interesting.

      "This job is really important to me," said Melinda with a look of real concern on her face. "I don't want to lose it, but I also feel as though somebody needs to know about what's happening. I'm afraid if I tell you, they'll find out it came from me and I'll be fired."

      "You can tell me," assured Ann. "Nobody has to know it came from you." Ann looked into Melinda's face, waiting to see if she would divulge whatever secret she was keeping. As she waited, she realized how young Melinda actually was. She couldn't have been more than 22 or 23 years old and here she was in a position of being ultimately responsible for the safety and welfare of more than 50 children.

      "But, please, don't let anyone know that I was the one who told you," pleaded Melinda. She hesitated a moment and then began, "Well, you see-"

      "Before you start," interrupted Ann. "Is there some place else we could talk in private..somewhere that's warmer. It's too cold in here for me."

      "I suppose we could go into the office," said Melinda, looking nervous.

      On their way down the hall, they passed a woman who had obviously been crying. Her eyes were wet and she was dabbing at her cheeks and nose with a wadded up tissue. Perhaps this is Theresa coming in late, thought Ann, but she said nothing.

      Once in the office, Melinda sat down on a small love seat and Ann sat on one of the two adjacent chairs. "So, what's going on?" asked Ann. Melinda stared anxiously at the open door, so Ann reached over and pushed it closed.

      "They'll know I was the one who said something," began Melinda.

      "No they won't. Nobody has to know," said Ann. She was beginning to wonder if Melinda was ever going to tell her what was on her mind.

      "Well, it's about the milk," said Melinda.

      "Milk? What about it?"

      "The children haven't been getting milk like they're supposed to. There's no money to buy it."

      "I know that was an issue the last time I came here," said Ann. "But that issue was settled. They sent me the receipts."

      "But did you look at those receipts?" asked Melinda.

      Ann reached into her briefcase that sat beside her chair and pulled out a folder. She opened it up on her lap and pulled out the receipts that the director, Mary, had sent to her after her last visit. "Here are the receipts," she told Melinda. "They show that more than enough milk was purchased over the month before my last visit."

      "Did you see where it was bought?" asked Melinda.

      Ann inspected the receipts. "These are all from Food World. What's wrong with that?"

      "Food World is north of town," answered Melinda.

      "So?

      "We buy all of our milk locally-either at the Supersaver or at Bryson's."

      Ann stared at Melinda. What was she trying to get at?

      "Those receipts are from the other New Generation center in Hillsdale," Melinda said softly.

      Ann still couldn't reply. Was Melinda saying that she had been conned? Lied to? Duped? Would the Director, Mary, really have done such a thing? Or was Melinda perhaps a disgruntled employee who was trying to make trouble? She sounded sincere enough, but was she really telling the truth?

      "There isn't enough money for milk in petty cash now either," continued Melinda. "I checked this morning and the box is empty."

      "Are you sure?" asked Ann.

      "Yes. Do you want me to show you?

      "Well, why isn't there any money in petty cash? What will the children be getting to drink for lunch today?"

      "We don't have enough milk, so they'll get juice," said Melinda. "As far as where the money went.. Well, did you notice the decorations in the entry way and in the hall? A lot of the petty cash was used for that-parent appeal, you know?"

      Ann didn't know what to think. Her head was spinning with this new information. And to think she had written off the original complaint as being unsubstantiated on the basis of these receipts! In some way, she felt personally insulted by their lying. Ann no longer wanted to sit here and talk with Melinda. This situation called for some action. "I need to check on the kitchen," she said and walked out the door, leaving her things and Melinda behind in the office.

      Ann entered the kitchen and immediately opened the refrigerator door. On the top shelf were three gallon-sized milk jugs. One was half full and the amount of milk remaining in the other two jugs combined wouldn't amount to much more than a half-gallon. Melinda was right. The children probably wouldn't be getting milk for lunch. This infuriated Ann. The parents who used this center trusted that their children would be getting the milk they were supposed to have. How could they possibly be expected to know that they weren't? With that thought, Ann realized that the initial complaint must have been an inside job-probably made by Melinda.

      Before closing the refrigerator, Ann checked the medicine box that was on the bottom shelf. When she lifted it by the handle, the box opened up and the single bottle of medicine that was in it nearly tumbled out. The outside of the box was dirty and sticky from things that had dripped on it from the shelves above, but the catch worked. It just hadn't been closed correctly, nor had it been locked. Not having a lock on the box was a violation she had cited on her previous visit. Did they think she wasn't going to check it again when she came back? And they knew she was going to make a follow-up visit. They just didn't know when. Ann made a mental note of the child's name that was on the bottle of antibiotics. She would have to ask Melinda about the paperwork for administration of the medicine.

      On her way back to the office to find Melinda, Ann checked the bulletin board in the front hall for the posting of menus and firedrills. Everything was in order but, then, who knew? Ann was well aware that paperwork didn't necessarily reflect what was actually going on in a child care center. It was unfortunate that it was relied on so heavily as an indication of program quality.

      Ann walked back into the small office, but Melinda was no longer around. Ann sat down in the chair where she had been sitting earlier and pulled out the forms and folders she needed to write up her report. She filled in the top part of the form. That was easy. Then she sat with her pen poised over the paper, wondering how she should handle the situation. She wanted to read them the riot act; to close them down if she possibly could. Hit them where it hurts-right in the pocketbook. These child care chains didn't care about children. All they cared about was the bottom line-making money. Anyone who would steal milk out of the mouths of babies deserved to be punished. But Ann knew she had to temper her reaction. After all, closing the center-even if she could-would hurt the parents too. They counted on New Generation to care for their children so they could work. There weren't that many child care options available to choose from in this town. Ann also wondered who was really at fault here. Was it the mismanagement of funds and poor administrative skills on the part of the director of this center that was causing all the problems? Was the regional director of New Generation aware of what was going on here? Or was the regional office perhaps part of the problem? Ann had some decisions to make and some of them needed to be made before she left the center today.

      As Ann further contemplated her decision, she remembered the departmental meeting she had attended last Thursday where the Regional Director announced that child care inspectors would gradually be assuming more responsibility for providing technical assistance to child care centers and licensed family day care homes. Whoever was making these decisions obviously didn't understand what the inspectors' jobs involved. The inspectors were usually viewed by center directors as the police-someone who had the power to take away their licenses. Would they ever admit that they had problems and ask for assistance from Ann or any of the other inspectors? Maybe, but it was doubtful. Besides, just look at the situation here at New Generation. Sure, there was a lot of information and assistance that Ann could offer to improve the quality of services they provided to the children, but would they want it or use it? Probably not. They couldn't even get adult-child ratios right and they knew what they were supposed to be doing about that.

P.J. McWilliam
National Center for Early Learning and Development
Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC

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