Childhelp USA: (800)-4-A-CHILD A hotline provides crisis counseling and literature about child abuse.

National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse: 800-Children This organization provides information and referrals about child abuse.

National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome, 1-888-273-007 The National Center for Shaken Baby Syndrome is a private, nonprofit organization that provides information to professionals and parents about SBS.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provides general information about health and safety issues, including links to child abuse information and topics.

Virginia Star Quality Initiative – A voluntary rating system for day care facilities in Virginia.  Includes a list of the highest rated establishments.

State by State codes for child care administration – This site lays out the rules and regulations for day care facilities by state.

National resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education – National organization that helps parents monitor the safety of child care institutions.

The lawsuit was filed by Jeff Rasansky, a Dallas lawyer with special expertise in daycare abuse, on behalf of Marcy Orsorio, the mother of two-year-old Isabella Estep. Isabella picked up a pebble from the playground at her daycare center (Woodbridge Day School) and took it inside with her, where she put it in her mouth and swallowed it. Her teacher Mia Jennings did not notice that she had brought a pebble inside, she did not notice that she had swallowed it, and she did not think anything was unusual about Isabella lying unconscious on the floor of her classroom — even though other children in her class gathered around her and tried to open her eyelids.

Mia Jennings did not have a high school diploma, nor did she have any training in first aid. Both are required by the State of Texas. By the time Jennings noticed what was going on, Isabella’s lips had turned blue. Since she had no idea what to do, Jennings could only carry Isabella down the hall to someone who could help her. It was too late.

The Texas licensing agency investigated and found that the school negligent and responsible for Isabella’s death. Such findings are reported and publicized on the agency’s website for two years — something that’s very bad for daycare center businesses. The owner of the day school, Nyse Hall, and her husband Robert, knew about the loophole:  If they sell the day school soon, all the teachers can keep their job and the daycare center can stay open — because once the daycare center is sold, the incident is erased from the State’s website and the day school can operate with a clean slate. In other words, the daycare center could go on operating as before with the same personnel, without the incident even showing up on the website where parents would go to find information on the safety record of the school.

The tragic events that came together to cause a little girl’s death were horrible enough, but they are compounded by the Texas law loophole that makes it possible for the day school to go on caring for  young children without other parents being able to find out what happened.

It was reported yesterday that Valerot Wilmot, the owner of Yellow Brick Road, has surrendered her license and shut down her daycare center.

In Richmond, about six weeks ago, a 13-month-old baby was left in a van for over four hours.  He died from heat exposure.  He was left in the van by an employee at his daycare.   The employee, Keishawn Whitfield, picked the baby up at 7:15 am, drove to the daycare center, and forgot about him.  Whitfield, son of the owner of the daycare center (The Yellow Brick Road), was charged with felony child neglect. 

Surprisingly, cases of children being left in cars aren’t all that rare.  The Virginia Department of Social Services, the state agency that licenses daycare facilities, knows that children have been left in vehicles by their daycare providers, because it requires daycare staff to verify that all children have been removed at the end of each trip.  Neverthless, it recorded eleven instances since January 2007 that violated that code requirement — and that was only the cases they discovered during their inspections.  Also, these are violations that were recorded at licensed daycare centers and don’t include home day care, certified preschools, children’s residential facilities or religious-exempt daycare facilities which are covered by other regulations.  Virginia daycare centers are subject to surprise inspections at least twice each year. 

Evidently, that’s not enough.