By Nia Bender
COLORADO – The colorado department of Human Services is launching a Safe Child Care task force to recommend reforms to ensure child care settings are safe, prevent illegal child care, and educate parents and child care providers about licensed and unlicensed care options.
It’s a response to recent deaths at daycare facilities across the state. The roughly 20-member board is being made up of representatives from state agencies, the State Attorney General’s office, advocacy groups, child care provider groups, and law enforcement.
In the state of Colorado, child care providers don’t have to be licensed to operate but they can only care for up to four children over the age of four for periods of less than 24 hours. Those rules aren’t always followed and that may be part of the cause of several recent tragedies.
For instance, a local daycare provider was arrested Monday in connection with the death of an infant. It happened on February 5th, on Widefield Drive in unincorporated El Paso County. The sheriff’s office received a call about an unresponsive infant at the in-home daycare operated by 53-year-old Dana McNair. When first responders arrived, life-saving efforts were performed, but the baby later died at the hospital.
McNair was arrested on one count of Felony Child Abuse resulting in Death and 16-other charges related to the other children who were cared for at the facility.
