After having twins at the age of 24, Lisa Timmerman discovered the cost of day care for them and her 8-year-old son made it nearly impossible to live a comfortable life.
“I was a single mom and I wasn’t able to see my kids and play with them,” Timmerman said. “So one day, I thought to myself, ‘I could do what their child care provider is doing.'”
That was 14 years ago. She watched children and eventually started Lisa’s Home Day Care in Portage.
Now, Timmerman and other child care providers across Northwest Indiana are keeping a close eye on developments in the wake of police discovering loaded firearms, liquor and other weapons inside a home day care in Merrillville earlier this month.
State inspectors got involved and the Merrillville Town Council may tighten regulations on child care operations.
“We need to do this for the safety of the kids,” Police Chief Joseph Petruch said at a recent meeting. “This is one of the worst things to happen in this town.”
Under a microscope
Merrillville police were dispatched to Tawana Cole’s home day care at 1730 W. 53rd Ave. on April 11 after being called by the Indiana Department of Child Services to assist in an unannounced walk-through.
When no one answered the door, an officer opened and climbed through a window, allowing other officers and DCS agents to enter, according to a probable cause affidavit. They heard children’s voices inside one of the bedrooms, and found two women and 15 children huddled together. One child held a stack of napkins to his head to cover a wound, the affidavit said.
Police also discovered four loaded guns, several open and partially empty bottles of liquor, and an assortment of swords and daggers, according to the affidavit.
Cole, 44, and the two women in the home were charged with one count of neglect of a dependent resulting in bodily injury, 12 counts of neglect of a dependent and 13 counts of criminal confinement.
Inspection records of Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA), a state agency that inspects and regulates day cares, reveal that Cole’s day care received 57 violations since 2014, including seven violations during her most recent inspection on March 27.
“I can tell you that based upon our inspection on the 27th of March, we didn’t find anything that was worthy of an emergency closure at that point because it had a lot to do with paperwork,” said Marni Lemons, FSSA’s deputy director of communications.
Cole’s day care license expired March 31.
In 2014, Cole’s license was revoked after she was cited for 17 violations during one inspection that included missing paperwork for children, a leaking roof, failing to have background checks for employees and proof of completing child abuse detection training. She previously had licenses revoked at two other homes in Gary and Merrillville, according to FSSA officials.
“There was quite an effort made for us to revoke the license,” Lemons said of the 2014 action. “When we do revoke a license, Indiana state law allows the license holder to appeal the revocation and they are allowed to remain open during the time they are appealing.”
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Ultimately, Cole reached a settlement agreement with FSSA and she was allowed to continue running her day care, Lemons said.
“This is often what happens,” she said. “They agree to fix the issues and we allow them to remain open and then we continue following up to ensure they met that agreement.”
As the licensing agency, Lemons said FSSA is not intent on closing child care facilities.
“It’s important to understand that our goals and objectives are not to shut down child care. Our goals and objectives are to make sure there is plenty of safe child care available for all the people who need it, because that’s one of the greatest barriers for parents to get a job. So we’re working to make sure they are safe and that they’re operating.”
Merrillville Town Council President Richard Hardaway said he would like to have a proposed ordinance tightening day care regulations by the next council meeting.
It’s a business
Tucked in the corner of her family room, next to a curved sectional sofa, Timmerman sits in a chair in her makeshift office that also serves as a playpen and classroom.
Her home must be spotless when FSSA shows up unannounced for its annual inspection. She knows it’ll be soon and that it’s serious business.
The inspector comes with a detailed checklist and looks at her paperwork, the kitchen, the ceiling fan, the fire extinguishers, the water temperature, the bathroom and even the toilet paper roll.
“The inspectors come and they go everywhere,” Lemons said. “They’re looking at everything from cleanliness to the way they are maintaining their food.” A Northwest Indiana day care once received a violation for its “sippy cups being stored and not covered.”
Debbie Sampson, a FSSA child care home licensing manager, said an emergency closure has been ordered for issues ranging from an infestation of bedbugs, roaches and mice, but most closures stem from a serious injury or death because of a lack of supervision.
Inspectors closely examine paperwork to make sure that facilities have the proper records on file for all children, Sampson said. Day cares also are required to have up-to-date shot records, background checks on employees, documentation showing that employees have completed the necessary training, among other records.
“Training is a big one we look for,” Lemons said. “We need to see a record kept that all the employees are being appropriately trained for things like CPR and first aid.”
Timmerman’s folders are color coordinated. When the inspector comes, she hands them a folder with all of her children’s paperwork, she said.
“This is the part of running a day care people don’t talk about,” she said, and that she didn’t know about when she began.
“I’ll be honest, when I first started, I was a babysitter,” she said. “I knew how to watch kids and take care of kids, but I had no idea it was a business.”
When Mike and Carisa Willis, of Portage, began searching for day care for their 12-year-old, they were a bit apprehensive.
“It’s scary when you first go into it,” Mike Willis said. “You have to find someone to trust with your child and get comfortable with them.”
He and his wife first checked to see if a day care was registered with the state before visiting, he said. His wife stumbled across Timmerman’s business card while exercising at a local health club. That was seven years ago. Both of their sons still go to Timmerman’s day care.
“With both of us working full-time [Timmerman] has basically been another parent for us,” he said. “She stays really active with them. She teaches the kids stuff. We were lucky to find her.”
Willis said he was alarmed when he heard about what happened at the day care in Merrillville.
“I thought that was crazy,” he said. “When you hear about stuff like that, it’s scary … but that’s how I know we were lucky to have (Timmerman) all this time.”
Lemons said parents could be the FSSA’s biggest allies in detecting perilous day cares.
“Any time we receive a complaint, we will inspect and investigate the complaint, so the most valuable tool that we have are parents’ eyes and ears,” she said. “And parents must let us know if there is a problem. We recommend that parents stop in unannounced from time to time.”
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