Lawmakers: How did child care worker get a new job after abuse investigation?
“The report is upsetting and unacceptable on many levels and we know you both share our sentiments and concern.”
Senate Republic Leader Kevin C. Kelly, of Stratford, Deputy Senate Republican Leader Henri Martin, of Bristol, and Senate Republican Whip Paul Cicarella, of North Haven in a signed letter
A Hearst Connecticut Media Group report about how a child care worker — who now faces criminal charges — was able to secure a new job weeks after being fired from another facility amid an abuse investigation has raised concerns for some state lawmakers.
In a letter this week to the commissioners of the Office of Early Childhood and Department of Children and Families, top state senate Republicans said they were “greatly disturbed” when they learned how Amy Tingets, who faces charges of firstdegree assault and risk of injury to a child, was able to secure a new job in Wilton just weeks after being terminated from a Greenwich facility.
The letter, sent Monday to Beth Bye, commissioner of the OEC, and Vannessa Dorantes, commissioner of DCF, was signed by Senate Republic Leader Kevin C. Kelly, of Stratford, Deputy Senate Republican Leader Henri Martin, of Bristol, and Senate Republican Whip Paul Cicarella, of North Haven.
“The report is upsetting and unacceptable on many levels and we know you both share our sentiments and concern. We are writing to gain a better understanding of current policies employed by OEC and DCF and to identify the best way to move forward, strengthen state laws, increase child safety and prevent inexcusable abuse as allegedly occurred in this situation from ever happening again,” the senators wrote.
Tingets, 39, who has not entered a plea to the charges, was arrested in May following a Wilton police investigation into an infant suffering a serious
head trauma while in her care at the Goddard School earlier this year, according to her arrest warrant.
“We are greatly concerned about what appears to have happened in this instance, and it is always deeply upsetting to learn of any injury to a child,” DCF and OEC said in a joint statement Thursday to Hearst Connecticut Media in response to the senators’ letter.
“Child care programs are encouraged to thoroughly review staff qualifications and employment history during their hiring process in addition to the background checks they are legally required to submit through the OEC.
“OEC and DCF are consistently working together. We will continue to do so to assess what occurred in this particular situation.
Together, we will make recommendations if determined that additional policy or regulatory expectations are needed.”
During the investigation, officers learned that Tingets previously worked for the Children’s Day School in Greenwich where she was investigated by OEC for claims of child abuse, the warrant stated. As a result of that investigation, she was fired from the Greenwich job, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
Less than two weeks after she was terminated, she interviewed for a job at the Goddard School. She was hired within days, and told the school’s owner that she needed to give notice to the Children’s Day School in Greenwich, the affidavit read.
Investigators learned the
owner had no record of contacting Tingets’ references and they didn’t call the Greenwich school to avoid ill will because they thought she still worked there, according to the affidavit.
The law requires all child care workers to submit to a background check, and Goddard Schools, through a spokesperson, said the background check came back clear.
When asked why the background check did not flag Tingets’ termination amid an investigation, legal counsel for OEC said the reviews focus on criminal charges and listings in child protective services and sex offender registries.
“If a criminal conviction, sex offender registry listing, or child protective services registry listing is identified, a review is conducted
to determine the suitability of the individual for child care employment,” OEC Chief Legal Counsel Michael G. Curley said in a statement earlier this month.
“However, if as in this case, no such history of criminal convictions or registry listings are identified, then the above review would not occur given the fact that there would be no criminal or child protective services finding to review,” Curley said.
The allegations at the Greenwich day care did not rise to the level of a DCF investigation, police wrote in the affidavit.
Curley said OEC and DCF share records and conduct joint investigations, but there are times when reports do not reach the level of DCF’s definition of abuse and that agency does not investigate.
In the letter to OEC and DCF, the senators posed a series of questions. They asked for the findings of the Greenwich investigation, whether police were notified about those accusations, who determined the case to be closed and whether the clean slate bill, which erases misdemeanor offenses after a period of time, will impact the child care background check process.
Curley said OEC is working on a new background check information system and “is reviewing how this system may be enhanced to support child care programs’ ability to assess staff qualifications.”
“Parents should know that the OEC and DCF are working collaboratively on improvements to help ensure that child care providers have the information they need to hire staff who will provide safe care to their children and a recommended policy change so that child care providers will have more access to information about employment history and will be required to gather important information from former employers,” DCF and OEC said in Thursday’s statement.