Part Two: Incident & Discoveries
On the evening of Monday, February 8, 2021, my 3 year old son told me that Daycare Provider hit him the face and called him a “bad boy.” Later that night he demonstrated the action with his hand and repeatedly called himself a bad boy, two of the only words he could speak at that time in his life due to a speech delay. Prior to The Incident, my son had never made a claim like that in his life and he has never made a claim like that since then (nine months later).
I believed what my son told me; he had no motive to lie. On the morning of February 9, I had a phone call with Daycare Provider wherein I told her my children would not be returning to her daycare. When I gave her the details of what my son had told me, she scoffed and immediately became defensive. She put a 5-year-old girl on the phone to corroborate her claim that nothing had happened. When asked if my son had been hit in the face and called a “bad boy” the day before, the little girl shyly answered “yes.” Daycare Provider immediately took the phone back and told me I would have to pay her a 30-day termination fee of $1,600 per her contract, to which I said I would not be paying her any more money. She claimed her husband was pulling up the camera tapes that very second that would prove The Incident did not occur. She later ignored all verbal and written requests to provide these tapes and told my attorney they (conveniently) hadn’t been working that day.
Daycare Provider’s dismissive attitude on that phone call assured me that I had made the right decision and that something had in fact occurred at her daycare. Little did I know this was just the beginning: the things I learned in the many months that followed The Incident caused severe emotional and physical distress.
Timeline of Events and Discoveries
November 2019: Children start at The Daycare.
January 2020: Business Partner no longer comes to work. Daycare Provider provides no notification or context, and Business Partner’s name is never mentioned again.
March 2020: Daycare Provider notifies me that I should expect a call from the state of Kansas regarding her daycare, but that I shouldn’t worry because she’s involved in a lawsuit with her former chiropractor who is filing false complaints against her. I regretfully believe her.
April 2020: I receive a phone call from KDHE or DCF. They ask me several questions about my children and their experience at The Daycare and then read out a list of incredibly disturbing allegations. I keep my answers brief and tell them that Daycare Provider told me her former chiropractor is going after her, which the state employee does not confirm nor deny. I continue to send my children to her daycare and later receive a letter in the mail that the allegations were found to be unsubstantiated.
February 8, 2021: The Incident
February 9 or 10, 2021: I reach out to a local law office and request a consultation.
February 11, 2021: I have a consultation with the law office who thinks they can help.
February 16, 2021: I have my first meeting with my attorney. We agree that she will send a demand letter to Daycare Provider regarding termination of daycare services and that I will file a complaint with KDHE. From there we will explore my legal options.
February 17, 2021: I file a complaint with KDHE. The investigator (“KDHE Investigator”) assigned to the case contacts me to discuss. She requests I send over a copy of the daycare contract as well as some screenshots of texts, then suggests that I file a report with DCF. Importantly, KDHE Investigator recognizes me from Daycare Provider’s previous investigation the year before. I reiterate what Daycare Provider told me about her lawsuit with her chiropractor and KDHE Investigator corrects me; she says that if I was contacted it was because a complaint was made against the daycare, not because something had arisen from a lawsuit. She mentions that I can request the daycare’s complaint records from the state through the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) and I send in a KORA request that same day.
February 18, 2021: I send KDHE Investigator the daycare contract and screenshots via email.
February 19, 2021: I file a report with DCF via phone.
February 22, 2021: My attorney sends the demand letter to Daycare Provider.
February 26, 2021: I receive Daycare Provider’s complaint and investigation records from the state of Kansas. The PDF file is 160 pages long and contains infuriating and disturbing allegations, photos, and screenshots that validate my decision to pull my children from her care but pose the question of: how is this daycare still in business? The records from my complaint are not included in this file because the investigation is ongoing. More on these records (“The KORA Records”) below.
March 9, 2021: Daycare Provider files against me in small claims court, claiming I owe her $2,984:
30-day termination of $800 per child; plus
$1,384 in “late fees”
See Part 3: Court for all the legal details. The entire experience was a disaster.
March 12, 2021: I receive the KDHE/DCF report which says the findings are unsubstantiated.
March 15, 2021: I formally engaged my attorney to assist me with small claims court preparation.
March 18, 2021: I hire a private investigator (“Private Investigator”) to locate and interview Business Partner and any other former parents he can find.
March 30, 2021: My attorney calls Daycare Provider to request the tapes she claims to have. Daycare Provider says the camera system wasn’t working at that time, and that she doesn’t know when it stopped working or when it began working again.
April 16, 2021: Private Investigator is finally able to interview Business Partner regarding her experience at The Daycare. I receive a written transcript and an audio file of the interview, which immediately brings me to tears because of how appalling the allegations are. Business Partner identifies two additional sets of parents who are also willing to go on record about their experiences, but Private Investigator is unable to get ahold of them after several attempts. More on this interview (“The PI Interview”) below.
April 20, 2021: I file a police report against The Daycare due to certain allegations made in The PI Interview. I meet with an Overland Park, KS police officer that same night to talk through the report and provide additional information/documents such as The KORA Records and The PI Interview. I never hear from him or anyone else at the Overland Park Police Department again.
April 27, 2021: Judge Robert Scott decides (during a motion hearing) that I owe Daycare Provider $800.00 since I only suspected abuse for one of my children rather than both (thereby owing the termination fee for one child).
May 10, 2021: After speaking with my attorney and taking some time to think, I decide that I am not willing to pay any money to the woman purported to have abused my children, even if it will cost me more in legal fees to defend. I file a Notice of Appeal with Johnson County Small Claims Court.
May 11, 2021: I formally engage my attorney to represent me in the appeals matter.
July xxxxxxx, 2021: I call Daycare Provider’s food program sponsor, who confirms she has not been active in the program since 2019. I no longer have any idea what my children were fed while in Daycare Provider’s care from November 2019 until February 2021.
July xxxxxxx, 2021: I call the Director of Childcare Licensing at KDHE (“KDHE Director”) regarding my experience with Daycare Provider. KDHE Director said that when I mentioned Daycare Provider's name she knew immediately who I was talking about, and that when she knows a provider by name it’s because they’re either really good or really bad, and “this is not the first case.”
As of November 3, 2021, Daycare Provider still maintains a squeaky clean record. None of the above information is available to the public.
The KORA Records
The PI Interview