Charges eyed in day care death in Garfield
0 Comments | Tribune – Review / Pittsburgh Tribune – Review, Jun 10, 2008 | by Jill King Greenwood
State law doesn’t require home-based child care centers like one in Garfield where a child suffered fatal injuries last week to be inspected or licensed in order to open for business, officials said Monday.
Nor do such centers, designed to provide care for children in a family-like atmosphere, need to separate infants from older children, a state Department of Public Welfare representative said.
Allegheny County prosecutors and Pittsburgh police are investigating whether to file charges against the owner of the Garfield day care or a caregiver who was on duty Friday when 10- month-old Marcia Poston was thrown to the floor at least two times by a 7-year-old girl, detectives said.
The county Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Poston’s death from head injuries a homicide.
“It’s possible that charges might be brought against the owner of the facility or the caregiver who was there when the baby died,” said city police Cmdr. Thomas Stangrecki. “Under state law, we can’t charge the 7-year-old child with homicide.”
The District Attorney’s Office yesterday referred the case to a Family Court judge, who will decide whether to remove the child from her home and mandate counseling. She is temporarily in the custody of the county’s Children, Youth and Families agency. State law does not allow prosecutors to charge a child younger than 10 with homicide.
In an interview that day, the girl admitted to twice throwing the baby to the floor, police said. Her account of how the baby was injured and died was not consistent with the infant’s injuries, said Mike Manko, spokesman for District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. Officers said the infant’s body was covered in bruises.
The girl has anger-management issues and was being evaluated by a psychiatrist, police said.
Bray’s Family Day Care on Dearborn Street was approved for operation in 1996, said Anne Bales, spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Welfare. Home-based facilities apply to the state for permission to operate using a paper application and are approved by mail, Bales said.
The day care operator, Loretta Bray, was not home when the incident happened. She could not be reached for comment, and no one answered the door at the home yesterday.
Home-based day care centers are not required to be inspected or licensed, as are larger child care facilities, Bales said, nor are they required to carry insurance. Caregivers at home-based day care centers must undergo 12 hours of training in child care and first- aid, and operators must document the training and medical or other information on the children at the facility.
“They are registered with us as an operating facility, but other than meeting the basic regulations, we don’t require them to do anything beyond that,” Bales said. “Anything they do, like carrying insurance or having more caregivers, is on them.”
Inspectors randomly check home-based day care centers, Bales said. They also respond to complaints from neighbors or parents.
Bray’s day care had problems in the past but corrected those issues, records show. In December 2003, an inspector found a caregiver did not have paperwork proving the 12-hour training requirement was completed; the first-aid kit was missing items; and medical records for some of the children were missing, according to state welfare inspection records.
In January 2004, an inspector found seven children being cared for in the home, records show — one more than allowed.
Home-based day cares can have one caregiver looking after six or fewer children who are not related to the operator, Bales said. The state does not require those facilities to separate infants from older children, as larger child care facilities must.
“We view those child care centers as being structured after a real family, where children of varying ages are together under one roof,” Bales said. “You wouldn’t separate your older children from your babies at home.”
In September 2004, none of the caregivers present at Bray’s Family Day Care during an inspection had first-aid training, and some documentation required for caregivers was not on file, records show.
All of the violations discovered at the center were corrected, Bales said.
Police said Poston and four other children, ages 10 months to 7 years, were being cared for by Bray’s daughter, Ashley Swann, 20, in a basement playroom. Swann told investigators she took a 1-year-old to the first floor to change a diaper and a few minutes later heard a noise and returned to the basement.
She said she found Poston not breathing and lying on a loveseat. She was bleeding from the ears and covered in bruises, police said.
Swann called 911. Poston was taken to Children’s Hospital in Oakland, where she died.
Funeral visitation will take place from 4 to 8 p.m. today at D’Alessandro Funeral Home in Lawrenceville
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