Story Created:
Jul 1, 2008
Story Updated:
Jul 2, 2008
I-Team: Checking Daycares Online
John Mercure
Katie DeLong
Erin Drew Kent
The TODAY’S TMJ4 I-Team gets results: parents can now check the history of local daycares on the Internet.
The state started a new Web site following a TODAY’S TMJ4 investigation.
Over the course of several months, the I-Team discovered a broken daycare system. A system that made it very difficult for parents to check on potential problems at daycares.
Parents the I-Team spoke to are hopeful that the new system will keep kids safer.
Grant Ogden was the star in his parents’ sky. Grant died at a Wisconsin daycare.
“Awful. I’ll never forget that. I remember the last time I kissed him goodbye,” Grant’s mother, Georgia Ogden said.
The daycare where Grant died did not have any complaints filed with the state, but when his mom and dad tried to investigation other daycares, they were upset to find out the state had no online database for parents to check.
That has now changed.
The Wisconsin Department of Children and Families has launched a Web site that gives parents detailed daycare problems and complaints going back for two years.
That relieves the Ogdens.
“You have to put your kids in somebody else’s hands and trust that they’re doing what they say they’re going to do,” Grant’s father, Craig Ogden said.
Users will be able to search the DCF Web site by county, zip code, or facility name.
Click on the link under related content to see the site.