CEDAR CITY, Utah — It’s been more than six months since the Utah Office of Licensing ordered an in-home daycare in Cedar City to terminate “all services,” after an employee accidentally ran over a 3-year-old's foot and severed several of his toes with an electric lawnmower last fall.
But the FOX 13 Investigates team has learned that Chandara Childcare has continued to look after kids, thanks to a loophole in state law that allows a daycare to operate without a license even if it was previously cited for compromising child safety.
"They’re not doing anything illegal,” noted state Sen. Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, in a recent interview with FOX 13 News.
Still, the situation has rattled Escamilla, whose attempt to close that gap in state law earlier this year failed. And it’s left child care advocates calling for stricter rules when a center loses its license.
“You hurt a child,” said Kim Rice, a former state child care regulator, of the accident at Chandara Childcare. “Now it’s OK for them to go unlicensed, and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
While licensed child care facilities are typically inspected at least twice a year and are expected to comply with a host of rules meant to protect kids, unlicensed providers operate with much less oversight. And because Chandara Childcare’s license “was closed,” Rice said the state now has “no ability to go in and regulate.”
That reality, she said, highlights the safety concerns she and other advocates have raised as Utah lawmakers have deregulated daycare over the last few years, leading the state to become one of the least restrictive in the nation for unlicensed child care.
“So now you can have a license, do things wrong, get closed down and still do care,” Rice said. “That's where the scare just… just hits me. That's where I'm most worried. Because if that happens, there's any number of things that could happen going forward.”
WATCH BELOW: Kim Rice, a former child care licensor with the state, describes the things parents should look for when choosing a daycare:
The center’s owner, Amber Chandara, declined an on-camera interview but confirmed in a statement that she is continuing to work with "a few families who wanted to continue having me care for their children.”
“These are families I’ve had for several years and have a very transparent and open relationship with,” she wrote.
She added that she has done “everything to comply with state licensing after the accident” andforwarded FOX 13 News an email showing that state licensors visited her daycare after receiving a complaint in early June. During that inspection, they found her center to be “in compliance” with rules and requirements applicable to unlicensed child care providers.
Read the FOX 13 Investigates team’s coverage of child care in Utah here:
- Unlicensed daycare providers are required to get background checked. That largely hasn’t happened.
- Inside one Utah county’s ‘child care desert,’ where parents have no licensed daycare options
- How a new daycare will change the economy, families’ lives in this Utah child care ‘desert’
- Hill Air Force child abuse case sent to prosecutors; cuts at base daycare
- Parents told of child abuse investigation at Hill Air Force Base daycare
A ‘crazy accident’
It was a warm October morning in Cedar City when a staff member at Chandara Childcare said he “decided to mow the lawn while the kids were outside.” He asked another employee to keep watch over them while he did.
When a 3-year-old boy running around the yard tripped and fell in front of the lawnmower, the employee told officers he “let go of the grip of the lawnmower thinking it would disengage immediately.” Instead, "the self-propelled tires continued to move forward and the blade continued to spin and ran over the child’s foot,” according to the Cedar City Police Department’s report on the incident, which FOX 13 News obtained through an open records request.
Staff quickly called 911 and put a blanket on the boy’s foot for compression. Officers arrived to find “bone showing and approximately half the child’s foot missing.” Emergency responders took the boy to the hospital for surgery.
Cedar City police determined the event was a “crazy accident” and that “nothing appeared criminal” in the case, so they decided not to pursue charges, according to the department's report.
The state Office of Licensing, however, decided to revoke the center’s license after its investigation found multiple violations of state rules at the daycare – including a failure to “actively supervise” the 14 children in its care, who ranged in age from 18 months to 5 years old. The state also said the daycare didn’t “protect” them “from conduct that endangers children” and didn’t maintain proper child-to-adult ratios.
While Chandara said she is continuing to care for a handful of kids, she noted in an email to FOX 13 News that most of those children will start school this fall, at which point she plans to permanently close her business.
“It’s extremely unfortunate and heartbreaking not only for me but for the couple of families who do have younger kids, however I feel it’s best as the older kids age out that I officially close and start on a new journey in life,” she wrote. “I’ve provided an incredible childcare for the community over the past 17 years, it is my passion, and I’ve been able to serve and work with many children and families.”
Chandara added that she’s “lost everything because of someone’s horrible decision and it definitely hasn’t been easy” but understands “as the owner of the childcare that it falls on me.”
“I continue to love and pray for the child who was injured and worked with the insurance company and lawyers to make sure the child who was hurt received everything they could to help provide a better life for that child after this life changing and horrific accident,” she concluded.
FOX 13 News reached out to the mother of the child who was injured in the accident, but she declined to comment. In a public social media post, she said her son was healing “wonderfully” – though his injuries will require ongoing care – and that the family has focused on forgiveness and love after the accident.
Amid broader concerns about the center’s continued operations, legislators attempted to tighten the law that permits a business like Chandara’s to operate. Escamilla looked to create a one-year “cooling off” period during which a daycare would be ineligible to provide child care services for one year after losing its license.
“What we said is, look, if you are under investigation and, you know, something serious happened where you got your license revoked, you need to figure out what’s happening before you just get the next day up to eight children and were back into business,” she said in an interview.
Her bill, SB221, would have also created new requirements for unlicensed daycares caring for more than five children and increased the enforceability of the background check requirement for unlicensed providers.
The bill ultimately failed in the House without a debate – though Escamilla expressed interest in sponsoring similar legislation during next year’s legislative session.
"We will continue to have the conversation,” she said of the proposal. “Sometimes it takes longer and that’s something I am very aware – and I’ve been here long enough to know that it takes time.”