Child care regulators dismiss communications gap in Delray Beach tot's death

Two top state officials responsible for overseeing child care centers in Palm Beach County said Monday that a meeting about inter-agency communication prompted mostly by the death of Haile Brockington revealed no major problems in how regulatory entities share information.

But Perry Borman, southeast regional director for the state Department of Children and Families, and Dr. Alina Alonso, director of the Palm Beach County Health Department, added that the Aug. 5 fatal incident at Katie's Kids Learning Center in Delray Beach could lead to more regular inter-agency meetings and improved public access to details about day care centers.

From creating a statewide searchable database of day care centers for parents to search by an owner's name to establishing more stringent requirements for centers applying for state funds, Borman said Haile's death, though tragic, should be taken as an opportunity for growth.

Borman added that online access of monitoring reports from the Early Learning Coalition of Palm Beach County, as well as frequent multi-agency meetings to discuss problems, are also being considered.

"That's really what the regulatory agencies locally, as we get together, focus on, what are the overall system things we can be looking at that make it better for parents to find out information," Borman said. "But also to explore whether there is something that we collectively or independently can do to change the outcome."

Borman said he would meet next month with agency officials to discuss consider meeting regularly and creating quarterly or bi-annual reports to discuss local child care issues. Early Learning Coalition representatives could not be reached for comment, but Borman said officials could change the language in contract agreements that would call for more firm penalties or possible revocation of funds for violating state regulations.

Alonso, who oversees licensing, is advocating for the statewide database for parents.

"What we think would bring value is to bring out the information that we have in a better form for the consumers, for the parents that are going to put their children in day-cares," she said.

Borman and Alonso described Haile's death as tragic, but added that a centralized database or a rules list cannot regulate human error, referring to the investigation of Haile's death.

Amanda Lee Inman, the driver of the van where Haile died, was charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child after investigators concluded she did not perform a state-mandated visual inspection of the vehicle after unloading children. Three other employees at Katie's Kids were fired by owners Kathryn Muhammad and Barbara Dilthey after Haile died.

"This horrible tragedy, as horrible as it is, was a tragedy because of human error, not because of a lack of regulation," Alonso said.

Borman added that "to suggest that having ... a website with all the information and speculate whether that would have prevented this tragedy, I don't think anyone can say."

Both DCF and the health department often hold joint investigations at day care facilities, and have conversations about any center that may not be in compliance, said Alonso.

"We found that our communication is really quite well done. Communication with both DCF, Family Central and even the other counties is very good," Alonso said.

Officials are still investigating Haile's death, but the coalition has pulled more than $200,000 in state funds from the facility in Delray Beach. Muhammad and Dilthey own two other Katie's Kids in Delray Beach and Boynton Beach, and Wexford Academy in Margate.

The health department sent out a notice to the owners last week advising of their intent to revoke the license for the center where Haile died. The Child Care Advisory Council will hear the owners' arguments for an appeal Oct. 13