Among the violations found: a screw protruding from a bookcase at child-height level in Longmont, Colo.; a children’s bathroom in Edna, Texas, without lighting for months; and expired infant formula in the refrigerator of a center in the District of Columbia.
The inspector general’s review was compiled using 24 audits of Head Start grantees running 175 facilities in seven states — Connecticut, New York, Georgia, Wisconsin, Texas, Colorado and California — and the District of Columbia from May 2009 to October 2010. While the review was of just a fraction of the approximately 1,600 Head Start grantees, it still raises red flags about the safety of children in such programs.
All told, according to the review:
—Twenty-one of 24 grantees did not comply fully with federal Head Start or state requirements to conduct criminal and other background checks.
—Nearly 90 percent of the facilities had toxic chemicals labeled “keep out of reach of children’’ and cleaning supplies accessible to children.
—More than 70 percent had open or broken gates leading to parking lots, streets or unsupervised areas and inadequate or broken fences.
—More than half had playground equipment that was not in good repair with problems such as protruding bolts, broken climbing apparatuses and elevated platforms without protective guards.
The inspector general recommended that the Administration for Families and Children, which falls under HHS and oversees Head Start, conduct onsite monitoring to ensure that centers comply with health and safety regulations.
It also called for the agency to determine whether it should seek legislation to require periodic background checks for Head Start employees and amend current policies to require that prospective or current employees be disqualified or terminated if they’ve been convicted of sexual abuse of a child or other forms of child abuse.
In response, the Administration for Families and Children said it “takes health and safety regulations very seriously and regularly monitors’’ under safety regulations.
