(Memphis) You can run, but you can’t hide!
A Memphis mother is outraged after the On Your Side Investigators discover new information about her daycare provider that skipped town after a horrible accident.
So much time has passed. There’s even a new addition to the Williams family. Yet Shyronda Williams says her kids are still scarred.
“They’re still going through the healing process. A lot of prayer, a lot of time being spent with them,” explains Williams of what’s helped the most.
Her children, Marcel and Shayrod were going through therapy when we first spoke last spring.
Both were injured when a van from Taylor’s Learning Academy flipped. Only one child was in a car seat.
Our investigation exposed the owners had previous problems, including another center denied a license renewal months before.
State regulators couldn’t explain why they didn’t make the connection.
“I can’t tell you how did we, didn’t connect the dots, how we should have connected the dots,” said DHS’ Joyce Turner during a 2013 interview.
Day Care Dangers, Missed Warning Signs
After the accident, the couple that ran the daycare, Charles and Delilah Taylor were hit with violations and instructed to suspend transportation.
They shut the doors, but we got a tip, they’d skipped town. Williams ran into the same problems after trying to sue.
Williams says, “That was the whole thing, they kept telling me that they couldn’t find her, they didn’t know where she was.”
WREG found her, nearly 400 miles away.
Delilah Taylor has set up shop outside Atlanta, a new daycare center called Douglasville Preparatory School.
“I can’t believe that,” exclaims Williams.
The On Your Side Investigators noticed the sign out front read 6 a.m. to 12 a.m., but while we were there, no parents showed up and neither did any workers.
We waited for hours, even checked a home address, and there was no sign of the Taylors.
Daycare regulators in Georgia had a hard time catching up with them too. They said Taylor blamed broken pipes for keeping the doors closed for weeks in January.
Bobby Cagle is the commissioner at Georgia’s Department of Early Care and Learning.
WREG first alerted them about the Taylor’s in May of 2013, when we heard the couple relocated.
After the On Your Side Investigators provided additional information, Cagle’s office launched an investigation into the new center.
He’s advocating for a national database that would help flag problem providers.
“Any other state in the country that’s considering them as a provider can look at that and know they’ve been disqualified,” explains Cagle.
Cagle also says his department is adjusting its application process to ask more questions surrounding a potential provider’s background in child care.
“Health and safety is our number one priority here.”
After hearing about the new center and seeing our pictures from Georgia, Williams said, “It’s showing no responsibility, no heart, no caring, no nothing, that’s sad.”
She also has a message for parents considering enrolling their kids at Taylor’s Douglasville center.
“I’ll advise anyone, don’t trust it, it’s not even worth it, it’s not even worth you child being scarred like that!”
Cagle says he plans to speak with federal authorities and the National Association of State Child Care Administrators about the possibility of a national database.
He says the USDA already uses a similar list and process for evaluating potential SNAP providers.
Douglasville Preparatory has recently been cited for facility violations. Cagle says the center has until next week to fix the problems.
Taylor has yet to answer phone calls from WREG.