Head Start audit finds Georgia lacking in background checks

"This is why regular monitoring is of great importance to ensure that programs are safe for children," Cagle said.

He also pointed out that the inspections occurred in 2009 and that the safety problems have since been cleaned up

Tuesday’s report identified employee screening as the biggest concern.

The Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services recommended that federal officials adopt provisions in some states, including “periodic fingerprinting, conducting recurring background checks, and developing an exclusion list to deny employment to individuals who have been convicted of certain crimes.”

Only the exclusion list exists in Georgia, the state with the least restrictive childcare licensing laws among the seven states, plus the District of Columbia, that were surveyed.

The revelations alarmed Teresa Huizar, Executive Director of the National Children's Alliance.

“There's no doubt about the fact that if centers are not doing background checks initially, but also repeat background checks over time, that kids are more at risk,” she said.

Inspectors visited 175 Head Start facilities, including 34 in Georgia, and found mostly minor hazards to children enrolled in the early education program, funded by federal block grants.

In 2010-11, Georgia Head Start provided a range of assistance to 28,488 children. In addition to early education, Head Start funds medical and dental services, parental services and social services.

The inspected facilities in Georgia included those run by LaGrange-based Community Action for Improvement Inc., Cartersville-based Tallatoona Community Action Partnership Inc. and Valdosta-based Coastal Plain Area Economic Opportunity Authority Inc.

Jerome Anderson, executive director of Community Action for Improvement, acknowledged that the Inspector General’s Office “found some things we weren’t proud of” in visits to the company’s 14 Head Start sites in west and central Georgia.

“But we immediately got in and corrected those things,” Anderson said.

Among the "most embarrassing” was a concrete canopy near a playground that had a small tree growing out of it, Anderson said.

“It is about due diligence, and we weren’t on top of it,” he said. “We weren’t on top of our game.”

The canopy was replaced, and the company made other improvements to its centers and with staff training, Anderson said.

“None of our children were ever at risk,” he said.

Among other hazards, inspectors found an unlocked closet with potentially dangerous liquid bleach inside at a Community Action for Improvement-owned facility in Hogansville.

At the Lowndes Head Start facility in Valdosta, owned by Coastal Plain Area Economic Opportunity Authority, inspectors found loose non-electrical wire hanging within reach of children and a sinkhole under the playground.

The auditors' primary concern, though, was background checks: Tallatoona Community Action Partnership officials were unable to provide documentation of required checks for 21 of their 162 employees.

An attempt to reach officials with Tallatoona late Tuesday was not successful.

Cagle, who took office in January, initiated a review of the regulations surrounding child care centers in the state and is preparing to roll out several changes. The agency is preparing a rule change requiring a sex offender registry search for all employees, a check now only required for directors, he said.

Only directors are subject to national background checks, as well, which Cagle said he would like to extend to all employees. But that requires a change in the law. All child care employees now are subject to state background checks.

Currently, licensed programs are monitored by the Department of Early Care and Learning at least twice a year, said public relations director Stacey Moore.

Cox Washington Bureau reporter Alison Burns contributed.