Baby's death cited in push for new child care standards
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Marquita Kelley, whose 10-week-old son died after he was left alone sleeping on his stomach at a day care center, asked the Education Committee to approve a Rep. Carolyn Dykema bill that would impose health and safety standards on child care facilities that are exempt from state licensing requirements.
When Marquita Kelley went to go pick up her 10-week-old son Elijah from her church day care one evening in April 2017, she found a staff member changing the diaper of her unconscious baby.
A staff member at the facility, Kelley said, had placed Elijah on his stomach to sleep and left him alone in a room.
Elijah was pronounced dead later that night. Kelley said he is believed to have died from sudden infant death syndrome, but that the cause of death was uncertain.
According to the National Institutes of Health, placing a baby to sleep on his or her back is the "single most effective action that parents and caregivers can take to lower a baby's risk of SIDS." Kelley said she later found out most of the day care's workers were not trained in sleep safety and that the center was exempt from state licensure requirements.
She said she often asks herself "if Elijah's death could have been prevented if the center had been subject to the regulations and inspections" that other, licensed day cares in Massachusetts face.
"All of our children should be protected equally," Kelley told the Education Committee. "I'm just pleading that this doesn't happen to more children."
Kelley asked the committee to endorse a bill filed by Reps. Carolyn Dykema and Hannah Kane that would impose health and safety standards for license-exempt private child care programs.
Dykema said those standards include "the most basic training" for staff, a maximum number of infants that can be cared for, and staff-to-student ratios.
A Holliston Democrat, Dykema said she filed the bill with Kane, a Shrewsbury Republican, to close what they saw as a loophole in the licensing standards. Dykema said they were inspired to act after hearing Kelley tell "a story that no mother should ever have to tell."
Under Department of Early Education and Care policy, a child care program can be exempt from licensing requirements for a handful of reasons, including if it does not operate on a regular basis, if it is a private organized educational system whose services are not primarily limited to kindergarten, nursery or pre-school services, or if it is providing care for children for short periods while parents or guardians attend religious services.
"When you bring your young child to a child care facility in Massachusetts, there is a certain expectation that you're bringing your child to a safe place, a place which is held to certain minimum quality standards," Dykema said.
After Dykema and Kelley testified, Rep. Alice Peisch, the House chair of the Education Committee, said she knew Dykema and Kane had had "several" meetings with former Early Education and Care Commissioner Tom Weber as they developed legislation to address their concerns.
Peisch told Kelley she appreciated her willingness to speak about an "extraordinarily difficult" experience and said she wanted to assure her that "we will do whatever we can to see that something as tragic as this is not repeated."
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