AUDIT FINDS 54 PEOPLE WITH CRIMINAL BACKGROUNDS CARING FOR KIDS

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A recent state audit showed that 54 people
receiving state money to provide child care had outstanding warrants
and criminal histories, including endangering a minor, drug and
drunken driving charges, child neglect, credit card fraud and assault.

Cathy Pollino, deputy director of the Secretary of State's Audit
Division, said auditors were so surprised to discover the warrants
that they double-checked with the Law Enforcement Data System, the
computer program used to do the checks.

"To me, those sound like significant offenses," Pollino said.

The audit of the state Adult and Family Services Division showed that
15 of the child-care providers had criminal backgrounds before they
were approved by the division, and the remaining 39 were issued
warrants after the initial background check.

Jim Neely, deputy administrator of family services, said that 54 is a
small number when compared with the 12,000 child-care providers who
are active each month.

"We're always surprised to see things like this," Neely said. "But we
are grateful to have seen this potential loophole."

The 54 providers who did have more serious warrants and were active in
child care were issued denial letters revoking their state
registration and payments, except for one woman with a larceny-theft
warrant who completed probation and is limited to care for her grandchild.

The family services agency has conducted more than 117,000 screenings
of child-care providers to determine if they are eligible for state
subsidies to provide child care for low-income families. The state
spent $112 million for the 1995-97 biennium.

The audit screened all 117,000 child-care providers, including 12,000
active providers. The audit team discovered 250 child-care providers
who potentially had outstanding warrants, but after going over the
list, the majority of the warrants were for minor offenses such as
parking tickets, had been satisfactorily cleared, or were issued to
inactive providers.

JaNell Welker, co-chairwoman for the Oregon Family Child Care network,
a communication link for child-care provider groups, said the audit is
the best thing that could have happened for Adult and Family Services.

"It put them on their toes to say, 'Hey, we can't even let that few
slip through the cracks,"' she said. "I think AFS is really on the
ball now, and they will not let this happen again."

The family services agency has been rechecking the backgrounds of
active providers and those who want reactivation every two years. It
also is planning to perform quarterly reviews of child-care providers
who are classified as "limited," or licensed to care for only one
child, usually a family member.

"The best thing to say about this is that, as with any large-scale
system like this, as we do checks, someone might not be included in
that check," Neely said. "But we got into this business to make sure
that child-care providers are safe for our kids to be with."

Checked-by: Patrick Henry