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Crosscurrents

"Reveal" takes us into the hidden dangers of daycare

Altanka
/
Shutterstock.com

When the preschool that journalist Katharine Mieszkowski’s daughter attended closed unexpectedly, she scrambled to find a safe alternative. She found that although state inspection records of preschools are public, they’re really hard to find.

Since the beginning of her reporting over a year ago, Mieszkowski has spent hundreds of hours with her colleagues scanning paper documents so that parents could have access to them electronically. Last September, California passed legislation that required some data on childcare centers to be posted online. But advocates say the legislation falls short because the site doesn't specify what problems were found in inspections.

For this story, Mieskowski met a family who could have benefited from seeing hidden day care violations much sooner, and shared her own journey in trying to make this information more accessible.

This piece was produced by our friends at Reveal at the Center for Investigative Reportingand PRX. You can hear more episodes of Reveal on KALW. The next episode will air on Friday, May 15th at 11am.

 

Crosscurrents