DHS Day Care Records Now Online

Wednesday, August 29th 2007, 9:42 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The state Department of Human Services has put compliance records involving day care homes and centers online, a move agency officials hope will provide parents better access to the information. Before Tuesday, parents had to visit a local Department of Human Services office to access that information.

The DHS web site, www.okdhs.org, doesn't list specifics of violations recorded during agency inspections or specifics of any abuse or neglect allegations, but it does note the number of violations found in various categories.

Starting October 1, day care centers will be required to make files including some of that information accessible to parents. The changes come after the death of 2-year-old Joshua Minton in May at a home day care in Tulsa. The owner of the day care, Vicki Chiles, has been charged with murder. A judge entered not guilty pleas on her behalf earlier this week.

Chiles' day care had been cited for numerous violations of which the child's family was not aware.

``In response to that tragedy, we've been working very hard to make it available and provide another avenue for parents to get that information,'' DHS spokeswoman Mary Leaver said.

The DHS site lists the number of noncompliance episodes in 27 categories _ such as fire safety, health and hazards _ along with dates of DHS visits to a day care and the reason for those visits. It also lists violations that are possible under each category. Because of privacy issues, some information, such as addresses of home day cares, is not posted online.

``It's a way to provide as much information as we can but not unnecessarily worry parents,'' Leaver said.

Rich Kerr, who owns six day care centers in the Lawton area, isn't opposed to the information being available online, but is concerned that some parents might not understand what the violations mean. He said that he would prefer that minor violations that occur only once not be online, but that repeat violations be reported.

``I think it's a good start, but I think it has some gray,'' he said.

Entire files on day cares remain available at local DHS offices.

To get to the Department of Human Services website, click here.

Watch the video: DHS Records Go Online