Faulty Lines of Communication
When they find trouble, agencies aren't trading info
By Sandra Peddie, Investigations Team
Originally published in Newsday, 1999
DAY SIX
Nichola Csere knew Alpha Beckford as an elder in her church, the Upper Room Tabernacle in Dix Hills, and liked her sweet, soft-spoken manner. And she felt sure Beckford's home was safe because she was a state-approved day-care provider. So when Csere took a job as an ultrasound technician and needed child care for her 15-month-old son, Chance, she turned to Beckford.
Csere, 24, had no idea a nonprofit agency was removing developmentally disabled adults from Beckford's home because of serious problems with the care she provided, as state records showed. Nor, apparently, did state day-care officials. Had she known, she said, she never would have left Chance in Beckford's care. And she would have avoided the nightmare that followed.
"They should let parents know the history on these people," she said. "This woman was the sweetest, nicest person. You would never know what she was capable of doing."
Csere left her son in Beckford's care. On his third day with her, Chance was beaten, according to medical records. Citing abuse and neglect, state officials suspended and revoked Beckford's day-care license. However, records also show that officials of Little Flower Children's Services, a nonprofit agency that had included Beckford in its network of homes for the developmentally disabled, knew about Beckford's "past adult abuse issues." But the agency apparently did not notify the state's Bureau of Early Childhood Services (BECS), which approved Beckford to do day care, until after Chance was hurt.
Beckford declined to comment. Little Flower officials said they notified the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, the state agency that oversees the adult program. Agency spokeswoman Deborah Sturm Rausch said she did not believe her agency knew Beckford was doing day care but declined to comment further.
The Beckford case is a striking example of what happens when agencies don't communicate. But, a Newsday investigation has found, it is not an isolated one. Routinely, information that common sense would dictate government agencies should share does not find its way to those who need it. Nor, in many cases, is it required. As a result, children are put at risk.
Child-care standards set by the American Public Health Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that government authorities "work together as a team." But in New York, there are no formal guidelines on sharing information from agency to agency. "It depends on the case, who coordinates it," said Suzanne Zafonte Sennett, BECS' director.
Because of this lack of coordination, neither BECS nor other agencies can provide the safety net parents expect. BECS does not tell other state and local agencies, for example, who is doing day care, so the agencies cannot or do not pass on information that would help the bureau better protect children in day care.
Newsday's investigation found:
State agencies are not required to check with BECS before taking action affecting children in care. As a result, in some cases, children's needs have been overlooked. In Medford, for example, Department of Corrections officials approved as a day-care assistant a prison inmate on work release—without asking anyone at BECS whether it was appropriate. They never notified state day-care regulators, but point out that her prison status is posted on the Internet.
Local authorities frequently do not pass complaints on to BECS. When child abuse is suspected, state law requires that it be reported to authorities. But there is no requirement to report other situations that may endanger children. For example, for three years, one provider operated both day care and a sober house for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts in a Central Islip home before day-care inspectors learned of it, despite complaints to both Islip Town and Suffolk County.
Police are not given names of licensed and registered providers and thus do not report domestic violence in a day-care home. Yet, they routinely notify other agencies of problems, such as child abuse, hazardous intersections or even restaurants with repeated disorderly conduct. Comprehensive figures were not available; but by checking addresses of day-care providers against police records, Newsday found dozens of incidents of domestic violence at state-approved day-care homes. BECS learned of few of those incidents, BECS officials say. Because the bureau doesn't give police the locations of day-care homes, officers have no system for reporting incidents back to the state. "It's ridiculous that they don't tell us," said Lt. Larry Strand, Hempstead Village Police chief of detectives.
Firefighters, who need to know what they face when responding to a call, are not told of day-care homes in their area. State law does not require it. By contrast, state law requires operators of group homes for developmentally disabled adults to notify local fire departments. In Roosevelt, firefighters responded to two fires at a house without knowing it was a day-care home. "It'd be hell to walk up to a place where there were a half-dozen kids and think there's nothing," said Herb Davis, Suffolk County's former commissioner of Fire Rescue and Emergency Services.
Because there is no concerted effort to coordinate information, vital information literally can get lost. "They're overworked, overwhelmed and nobody's thought about it," Andrea Holmes, of Debbie's Creative Childcare in Plainview, said of state day-care inspectors. "Everybody's just trying to do their daily job."
She added, "Is that a legitimate excuse? No. The cost is too great."
In Beckford's case, two different state agencies approved her to care for children and developmentally disabled adults. Such "dual certification" is legal in New York. Some other states, including California and Vermont, prohibit dual certification.
In March, 1998, Little Flower Children's Services removed developmentally disabled adults from Beckford's home. Little Flower officials said Beckford failed to meet clients' needs, was "argumentative," complained about not getting enough money and refused to comply with regulations, according to records. There is no indication in files released to Newsday that Beckford responded.
Robin Amato, Little Flower spokeswoman, said her agency's "first priority” was to assure safety of the developmentally disabled adults by reporting its actions to the state agency overseeing their care.
Records indicate BECS officials learned of Beckford's history only after Chance was hurt, when a Little Flower representative told an investigator Beckford had "past adult abuse issues."
Sennett said BECS is not required to ask day-care operators if they are providing services to "special populations," but after Newsday reporters asked about the policy and the Beckford case, she added, "we have decided to collect this information as part of the licensing/registration process."
To Nichola Csere, all that matters is what happened to Chance. It was May 4, 1998, a day she will not forget.
That morning, Chance, normally a happy, easygoing baby, fought going to Beckford. He kicked, screamed and cried. Csere's father, who was watching him because Csere and her husband had left for work, thought something might be wrong, but gave the baby to Beckford anyway. To this day, he regrets it.
That afternoon, Csere's mother picked up Chance, who was the only child in Beckford's care in her Wheatley Heights home that day. Beckford quickly bundled up the 20-pound boy in a hooded jacket and handed him to her. Csere's mother thought he seemed sick and hurried home.
When she got home and pulled off his hood, she was stunned by what she saw. His face and neck were covered with deep, red scratches and bruises, and he was slumped and listless. Chance's father arrived home shortly afterward and immediately went to Beckford and questioned her. Beckford told him Chance must have scratched himself.
Within minutes, Csere returned home from work. Hysterical, she and her husband rushed Chance to Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip and called police.
Medical records catalogued bruises and swelling on his forehead, scratches on his neck and nose, and bruising on his chest. Fearing a fracture, the doctor ordered a skull X-ray. There was no fracture, but Chance was sent home with a list of warning signs of a concussion. Csere said the doctor told her Chance had been hit by a blunt object and that fingernails probably had caused the scratches on his face.
The trauma didn't end there. For months, Csere said, Chance woke up screaming in his sleep.
Police questioned Beckford as well as Csere's family. But Beckford's story kept changing over the next three days, records show.
She initially told police she didn't know how Chance was injured. Then she said she was at the Suffolk Department of Social Services, that she left children in her car and "maybe one child hit the other child with a bottle." Department officials confirmed Beckford had been there for at least 20 minutes.
Other state records show Beckford also said she had stopped at her house and had only momentarily left children in her car when Chance was injured.
Csere said a CPS investigator told her Beckford abused Chance. Citing abuse and neglect, state day-care regulators suspended and revoked her registration a week later, records show. Beckford appealed, and a hearing was held in July, 1998. The decision is pending, according to her lawyer, Joseph R. Mule. Mule declined to comment on the case. CPS officials are barred by confidentiality rules from commenting.
Despite that determination, police couldn't press charges because there were no witnesses and Chance couldn't tell them what happened, Csere said. "It was as if it just did not happen and she got off scot-free," she said. Suffolk police said the case is still open.
Csere's cousin is now watching Chance temporarily, but Csere has to make other arrangements soon. Still haunted by what happened, she doesn't know what to do, she said.
"How can people work and feel safe?"
From Prison to Day Care
Because state agencies are not required to check with BECS before taking action, sometimes questionable decisions get made, placing children in inappropriate situations.
Such was the case of Natasha Copelin and how she was approved for a work release prison program that entailed working at her mother's day-care home in Medford.
On Oct. 29, 1995, Copelin, 24, was sentenced to 4 1/2 to 9 years in prison for forgery and grand larceny. When she was ready for work release in 1998, she needed a job. So her mother, Lorine Copelin, agreed to take her as a day-care assistant. State corrections officials approved her placement—without ever telling state day-care regulators.
The state corrections department approved it because she was a nonviolent offender, had not been accused of a sex crime and was doing secretarial work, said Jim Flateau, department spokesman. However, he added, "She should not have been approved to work in a day-care center."
Lorine Copelin's day care is not a center, but a group family day care in her Medford home. She is licensed to take up to 14 children. Natasha Copelin started on work release there on June 19, 1998. She worked weekdays at the day care, returning to Bayview State Prison on weekends.
About three weeks later, on July 9, Natasha Copelin filed an application with BECS to be an assistant in her mother's day care. Asked on the state form if she had ever been convicted of a crime, she left the answer blank.
BECS officials had no idea she already was working there on work release, but discovered that she did have a "criminal background" after seeing an item about her in Newsday, Sennett said. They denied the application to let her be an assistant.
She nonetheless continued working there until she applied for a job change in January. That was when prison officials realized she was working in day care and removed her. She subsequently worked in a hospital, Flateau said.
Lorine Copelin said her daughter did not have any contact with the children and just handled paperwork.
State day-care officials maintain they don't have authority to conduct a criminal background check on providers and household members. In fact, Flateau said, anyone can find out whether a person has served time in a New York State prison in the past 40 years by simply checking the department's Web site, www.docs.state.ny.us.
Natasha Copelin said her crime had nothing to do with children. "If they [the state] messed up, that has nothing to do with me," she said.
She added that she was told she could work at another day care. "I did my crime. I did my time."
Lorine Copelin said she also does foster care and has adopted 11 foster children. This year, through September, the Suffolk County Department of Social Services paid her $67,005 in subsidies for children she has adopted. This year, through August, the department paid her $64,137 in day-care subsidies.
Sennett said her office plans to revoke Copelin's day-care license.
Copelin said she has stopped doing day care since the state took action after Newsday's inquiries. "I am closed," she said. "No more kids in here. I don't want any trouble. It isn't worth it. I don't need the money. I do fine without it."
Day Care/Sober House
When a day-care provider hides information or lies about circumstances that may affect the children in care, it may not always be possible for day-care regulators to know what is really going on. But in one case, several local government agencies had contact with a day-care provider whose home was not appropriate for day care, but they never told BECS.
When a state day-care inspector visited Chum Inc., a group family day care in Central Islip, last year, she saw two children playing unsupervised in a backyard littered with debris, and an exposed cesspool. But what came as a complete surprise was what one man living there told her—that Chum was also a sober house.
Sober houses provide transitional housing to recovering substance abusers. They are unregulated and many of their residents have criminal records, said Legis. Steve Levy (D-Holbrook), who has pushed for restrictions on sober houses.
For three years after granting Chum owner Natalie Fowora a day-care license, BECS officials had no idea she also was operating a sober house there, despite the fact that Islip Town and Suffolk County had received complaints about that address. Once state officials learned of the sober house, they immediately suspended Fowora's license. But Chum is an example of how one provider slipped through the cracks of the regulatory system, even though there were many red flags along the way.
"The different levels of government operate with tunnel vision and take the course of least resistance,” Levy said. "They don't want any extra work that they don't have to have."
In an interview, Fowora denied there had been a sober house at her day care. Asked why a man living there told a state inspector that there was, she declined to comment further.
Fowora has run several sober houses. At Chum's Central Islip office, Fowora and her husband also run a tax service, provide mobile communications service, repair computers, teach computer classes and sell hats.
Fowora applied for a group family day-care license under the name Chum Inc., on June 26, 1995, for a home on Wilson Boulevard in Central Islip. She stated that she, her husband Anthony and two daughters lived there. By September, she was approved to care for up to 12 children.
Shortly after Fowora began day care, the Suffolk County Department of Social Services began paying Chum child-care subsidies. At the same time, the department also began sending public assistance shelter payments for one person—not Fowora or her husband—living there.
Under state day-care regulations, a group family day-care license is granted to a "family home which is a personal residence." Even though state inspectors noted at least four times that Fowora was not present during their visits, officials apparently were unaware that the Foworas actually live in Belle Terre. Voter records show they have been registered at a Belle Terre address since June 5, 1996.
In 1996, the Suffolk Department of Social Services paid Chum $8,078 in public assistance for seven people living at the Wilson Boulevard house. In 1997, records show it paid $9,873 for nine people. But because the county department does not conduct day-care inspections, officials there did not know it was a sober house because they were public assistance payments. There is no distinction made in payments for sober-house residents. "There's no way for us to know it," said Dennis Nowak, DSS spokesman.
On Aug. 12, 1997, the Suffolk County Health Department, prompted by a complaint about an open cesspool, inspected the home. The sanitarian found no sewage or water problems, but did count 20 children and four adults. It is unclear whether the department's report was passed on to the state, said Ernest Dinda, the department's environmental protection chief.
Complaints to BECS followed. Then, on Sept. 15, 1997, Fowora's day-care license was renewed for two years.
Last year, Islip Town code enforcement cited Fowora for illegally renting the house after a complaint, said Islip Town Attorney Vincent Messina. He would not provide details of the investigation because he said it was a pending law enforcement action.
On July 2, 1998, according to records, someone called BECS officials to complain that Fowora did not live there. The caller said the house also was occupied by men in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation and ex-offender program. The caller said one resident made advances toward her.
When the BECS inspector confirmed the complaint, Fowora's license was revoked.
A subsequent investigation by Suffolk DSS found Chum required employees to use its day care as a condition of employment. In addition, Fowora withheld employees' wages until she was paid their child-care subsidies by the county, according to a letter written by DSS Commissioner John Wingate.
Fowora said that her day-care license has been reinstated, but that she no longer is doing child care because she wants to do "bigger things." BECS officials did not respond to the question of whether her license had been reinstated.
Violent Stalker
State day-care regulators do not routinely check out day-care providers, their family members or their home addresses with law enforcement agencies. As a result, they do not learn of violent or potentially violent situations in day-care homes.
"The state should be asking law enforcement agencies if we have any history on people and residences involved in day care," said Suffolk Probation Officer Philip Proferes. "If a person has a record of being a danger to the community, I think they should be kept away from little kids who can't defend themselves."
In turn, police say they should be given names of day-care providers so they can report problems to the state. "If we had a day-care center that had something unusual going on, we certainly would ," said Lt. William Neubauer, commanding officer of Suffolk County's Fifth Precinct crime section. "It would be the prudent thing to do."
Hempstead Village Police, records show, have gone to the home of day-care provider Yolanda Bueno repeatedly in response to calls that her grown daughter Michelle was being stalked by her ex-boyfriend, Nathaniel Funderburke.
Funderburke has been convicted of charges that he vandalized Michelle Bueno's car and threatened her with a knife. "We don't know what to do about this guy," Yolanda Bueno said.
Funderburke could not be reached. But a woman who answered the telephone at his house and said she was his aunt said any problems were caused by both Funderburke and Michelle Bueno.
When Hempstead police responded to calls about disputes between Funderburke and Michelle Bueno, they never knew they could be going to a state-approved day-care home.
BECS officials never knew, either. "We have no direct knowledge of Michelle being stalked by an ex-boyfriend," Sennett said.
Michelle Bueno's tumultuous relationship with Funderburke began in 1995, her mother said. That was four years after Yolanda Bueno was approved as a family day-care provider, which permits her to care for up to eight children.
By 1997, Michelle Bueno had gotten an order of protection against Funderburke. On Jan. 28, 1997, records show she called police because he contacted her inside her home, in violation of the order. The incident occurred at 4:30 p.m. on a Tuesday, during day-care hours, records show.
Yolanda Bueno denied he had ever bothered her daughter during day-care hours, although records show her hours are from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The following month, Hempstead police arrested Funderburke after he allegedly threatened Michelle at her job at the Nassau County Department of Social Services. The disposition of the case could not be learned.
On Jan. 14, 1998, Michelle was at work when one of Funderburke's friends handed her a card. Michelle said she recognized Funderburke's handwriting. The card read, in part, "I know where you live and work. No one is going to be around to try and protect you forever."
She called police, who arrested Funderburke for aggravated harassment and criminal contempt. He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was given a conditional discharge and a $100 fine.
On Jan. 9 of this year, Michelle was at home. It was Saturday morning. Funderburke showed up. She went outside and told him to leave, according to police records. "He cursed me and called me a—bitch and said he's not leaving," she told police. "Then he pulled out a kitchen knife that had a brown wooden handle with a 1- to 2-inch blade on it. I was walking away from him, then he said, ‘I am going to slice you and wreck you.' Then I tried to run in the house. He grabbed me, but I was able to get in the house."
He then slashed her tires. He was charged with menacing, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was sentenced to time served.
Funderburke has stalked Michelle, according to police records, even though she has gotten several orders of protection against him. Orders of protection are recorded in a registry. Courts and police have access to it. State day-care officials do not.
Yolanda Bueno said Funderburke has never threatened her or children in her care. State records show she has listed both Michelle and her other daughter, Josette, as able to assist her in child care in case of emergency.
Bueno has not been cited for any problems in her day care. In fact, in one report, the inspector noted, "There seemed to be a mutual respect between parents and provider and vice versa. The children in care were also treated with respect and patience."
Suspicious Fires
County fire officials inspect day-care centers annually. They inspect family and group family day-care providers far less frequently. If there is a suspicious fire, state fire inspectors notify local fire departments. But they do not routinely tell them where registered and licensed providers live, even though such information can be critical in an emergency.
"It's not hard to notify local fire departments," said former Suffolk Fire and Rescue Emergency Services Commissioner Davis. "All it takes is a letter or a phone call."
On Jan. 16 of this year, firefighters responded to two basement fires about two hours apart at a day-care home in Roosevelt. The fires caused extensive damage and were deemed suspicious. But firefighters never knew it was a state-approved day-care home.
"That really shocks me," said Joseph Saudo, the Nassau County Fire Marshal's Office investigator who is looking into the fires. He said he could not discuss details of the fires because they are under investigation, but said family problems may have played a role.
But the fires highlight a critical problem that could have dire consequences: Firefighters are not told of state-approved day-care providers in their area.
Knowing how many people are in a residence changes the strategy of responding to a fire, said Levittown Fire Chief Michael Gilroy. "When we do our operations, we would like to know what we're up against."
Other States
In some other states, information affecting child care is shared more often. For example, in Massachusetts, police recently told state day-care regulators there of gang violence involving one provider's son. As a result, her license was revoked. In addition, Boston police use mapping software to find out how close day-care providers are to registered sex offenders. If they're close, they'll alert the authorities.
In Minnesota, both police and Child Protective Services work with day-care licensors, said Laura Plummer Zrust, spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Human Services.
And in Vermont, every licensed day-care provider is posted on the Internet, said Coleman Baker, chief of child-care licensing in that state.
Sennett said that in the future, BECS will try to improve coordination of vital information affecting child care by giving more weight to complaints passed on by other agencies.
"For example, obviously if a building inspector goes in and says wires are all hanging down and I'm not going to give them an approval, we obviously take action on the basis of that," she said.
She added that her agency is looking into working with 911 operators, as well. "I would think that a 911 respondent would like to be able to say there's four infants there because they're doing family day care," she said.
To Holmes of Debbie's Creative Childcare in Plainview, that's a step in the right direction. "There are certain things that can fall through the cracks," she said. "And there are certain things that can't. And safety is one of them."
