A difficult lesson for state's day care

The events surrounding a 9-month-old girl's death at a Virginia Beach day care in 2005 are egregious enough that they should shame Virginia into changing its child protection laws.

The day care was unlicensed. Its owner, a felon convicted of a scam and of child neglect, was looking after 20 children without any help. She claimed to know CPR, but parents had no way to verify her training. Child Protective Services had substantiated complaints against the day care but by law couldn't release information without the owner's permission.

When emergency workers were called to the day care in September 2005, owner Ann Marie Cardinal was performing CPR improperly on baby Hannah Weiss, who was already dead. A medical examiner found evidence that Hannah might have been smothered, but prosecutors lacked enough evidence to charge Cardinal with that offense.

Instead, in 2006 she pleaded guilty to 10 counts of running a day care without a license and was sentenced to 10 years - one for each charge.

Cardinal should still be behind bars, but last week, a judge cut her sentence in half and set her free. The Virginia Supreme Court had sent the case back for resentencing because there was no official recording of the previous sentencing hearing.

We can't change the tragedy, or the fact that Cardinal is back in society. But we can change the laws and procedures to prevent a repeat of the circumstances that allowed Cardinal to do what she did.

For example, what good does it do parents trying to keep children safe if information about their day-care providers, contained in the Child Abuse and Neglect Central Registry, is confidential and released only with a provider's signed, notarized authorization?

Early last year, a study of Hampton Roads facilities found nearly half operating without a license. Many were exempt because of size or religious affiliation, but without oversight, who checks the cleanliness of the home, the provider's background, how many children are being cared for or whether they're safe?

The study, organized by Smart Beginnings South Hampton Roads, an early childhood advocacy group, also showed there was little way for parents to assess the safety or health practices at child care centers or the staff's training or experience.

Thanks in part to Smart Beginnings and The Norfolk Foundation, a statewide, voluntary rating system is now in place that holds providers accountable and gives parents a way to assess their day-care options.

Using a five-star scale, state-trained consultants have rated 103 centers, 28 of those in Hampton Roads, on four criteria: staff training and qualifications, interactions between children and staff members, class size and staff-to-child ratios, and learning environment and instructional practices.

This is a small but significant start. The rating program is expanding. In addition, a state Web site allows the public to check facilities' licenses and inspection reports. But more needs to be done.

Information about day-care facilities and their operators - including the number of staff required, their training and details of child-abuse complaints against the facility - should be public record.

Parents looking for child care should check for licenses (www.dss.virginia.gov/facility/search/licensed.cgi) as well as providers' criminal records. Facilities illegally operating a child care center should be reported and closed until they meet state requirements.

Cardinal is out of prison now because of a technical error in her sentencing three years ago. The question for the state, and for every parent: Would Virginia's laws prevent what happened under her watch from happening again?