Boys & Girls Clubs flagged
State inspectors find 117 deficiencies at Texas centers in past 3 years
Fifteen Texas Boys & Girls Clubs of America affiliates failed to meet minimum state requirements for licensed child care centers more than 100 times in the last three years, inspection records show.
The Texas Department of Health and Human Services recorded 117 deficiencies from January 2016 through November 2019 including one instance of a club failing to prevent child abuse; employees working with children before required background checks were completed at multiple locations; and staff at affiliates inadequately supervising minors.
One Boys & Girls Club operated without a license, an employee inappropriately punished a child and some clubs could not provide proof of staff’s completion of required training, according to the reports.
Failing to implement safety measures like background checks and proper supervision of children can lead to incidents that hurt or traumatize children for life, said Bob Sanborn, president and CEO of Children at Risk, a statewide research and advocacy group.
“Parents don’t understand these shortfalls are happening,” Sanborn said. “Organizations that don’t do everything they can to protect children are doing a disservice to parents and certainly a disservice to children.”
Boys & Girls Clubs of America confirmed with the Texas clubs that they took “immediate corrective action” in these instances, a statement from the national organization said.
“Those actions included strengthening the implementation of processes and procedures, ensuring staff and volunteers receive appropriate training, enhancing supervisory policies and terminating employees if necessary,” the statement reads.
The Houston Chronicle examination of Boys & Girls Clubs in Texas follows a sixmonth Hearst newspaper investigation published in August that found 250 people in 30 states who say they were sexually abused as children by employees, volunteers and other members of Boys & Girls Clubs of America affiliates. Of those cases, 10 occurred in Texas.
The nationwide investigation found allegations that in some instances club leadership failed to report abuse and did not conduct sufficient background checks on employees who were later convicted of sexually abusing children. In other cases, court documents say children were sexually assaulted by peers in unsupervised areas of clubs.
For at-risk youth
Boys & Girls Clubs of America is the largest youth organization in the nation. Since its inception 160 years ago in Hartford, Conn., Boys & Girls Clubs have provided programming to at-risk youth. Today, it has more than 4,600 affiliates and serves about 4 million children a year.
Government oversight of the kind of after-school care Boys & Girls Clubs provide varies in each state. In Texas, a licensed before or afterschool program must operate for at least two hours a day and three days a week, according to the state’s Human Resources code. Programs that operate less frequently are not required to be licensed with the state and are not inspected.
Of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America’s 399 Texas locations, 22 are currently licensed after-school care centers, online state records show. Those clubs are the only affiliates that are regularly inspected by the state.
Boys & Girls Clubs of America has lobbied against implementing additional state oversight of local clubs in the past, successfully doing so in 2016 at the Connecticut General Assembly.
“Club resources are limited,” Sara Leutzinger, a Boys & Girls Club spokesperson said in October regarding the organization’s position against additional government oversight, adding it must ensure its money is allocated to the best benefit of the population it serves.
The organization’s statement said in many cases, club policies “exceed state safety requirements.”
However, inspection documents indicate the licensed affiliates in the state have failed to meet Texas’ minimum licensed child care standards from 2016 through 2019, despite the requirements Boys & Girls Clubs of America says it enforces at all member organizations.
Fifteen of the deficiencies recorded in Texas are categorized as “high” risk by the state and 67 were “medium high.” There were 27 deficiencies ranked as “medium” risk and eight as “low” risk. All the issues were rectified by the clubs, inspection records indicate.
Boys & Girls Club of Brazoria County’s Angleton location failed to prevent child abuse on July 5, 2018, according to state inspection records.
“Based on the preponderance of information obtained during the investigation, there is sufficient evidence to prove a caregiver did not ensure that a child was not being abused by another child while in care,” reads the report.
The children went under a desk, where the abuse occurred, and were out of the view of their caregiver, the report says. The director was at fault for not ensuring the caregiver was fulfilling his or her responsibilities. The caregiver was placed on administrative leave after the incident, and new policies were put in place in response to the incident this year, the club told inspectors.
The Angleton club complied with the state’s requirement to offer abuse and neglect prevention training to caregivers on Sept. 28, 2018, the report says.
The Boys & Girls Club of Brazoria, the organization that runs the Angleton location, did not respond to a request for comment.
The Boys & Girls Club of Greater Houston’s KIPP Sunnyside location twice failed to perform mandated background checks on employees who had direct access to children — once in September 2018 and once in January 2019, according to inspection reports.
“It is common for organizations to not take the time to do background checks or forget to do them,” said Sanborn. “There needs to be more public pressure to make sure it’s happening.”
The process adults have to go through to visit public schools, which involved checking a state-issued license and running a quick background check, is an example of how easy it can be, Sanborn said.
‘Biggest nightmare’
“If schools are able to do this, every organization should be able to make sure adults working with children are not sexual offenders or others who have hurt children,” he said.
While the majority of people who aren’t background-checked may not have anything to hide, Sanborn said it only takes one person with ill intentions to negatively impact a child’s life.
“It only takes one predator being allowed to work at a place without a background check to traumatize child for life,” he said. “This is our biggest nightmare.”
The Houston club also failed to meet the state’s required child-to-caregiver ratio of 26 children to one adult, a report says. There were 28 children ages 11 to 13 overseen by one adult, according to the citation. The director moved two children from the group to correct the deficiency the day it was observed, according to the state agency’s documents.
Inspectors returned to the Houston club a month later in December 2018 and reported that the child-to-caregiver ratio again did not meet the state’s standards. There were 29 children under the supervision of one adult that time, the report says. The director again moved children to meet the ratio requirements upon in Boys spection.
The KIPP Sunnyside club was a licensed after school care center. It voluntarily gave up the license after being approved for an exemption as a “Neighborhood Recreation Program” in May. The club can no longer present that it’s a child care facility, according to a letter of exemption from the Department of Health and Family Services, but still must adhere to some state regulations like mandated background checks.
Brazoria facility
Boys & Girls Club of Greater Houston, which operates the KIPP Sunnyside location, did not respond to a request for comment.
In September 2018, the & Girls Club of Brazoria’s Brannen and O.M. Roberts locations were both cited for not conducting background checks on three employees who had direct access to children.
An employee was observed by inspectors interacting with children in January at the Boys & Girls Club of Brazoria County’s Savannah Lakes location before the organization received the results of his FBI background check, a report says.
The Savannah Lakes location operated as a child care center without a license in September 2018, a citation says. It submitted an application for a license the same day, per the report.
The state recorded 16 instances in which multiple affiliates could not provide documentation or proof of the completion of required training for staff on topics such as safety and first aid.
Third-party review eyed
Among other deficiencies recorded in the last three years include clubs failing to notify the Department of Health and Family Services of a change in director; not conducting required fire drills; and missing mandatory documents from children’s files.
Boys & Girls Club of Brazoria runs the Savannah Lakes location and did not respond to a request for comment on the deficiencies.
David Swyers, captain of the Salvation Army that runs the Boys & Girls Club of Kerrville, said his club only had two deficiencies reported since 2016 and quickly addressed them. Like many local clubs have said in the past, Swyers said the safety of the children it serves is its number one priority.
The national organization announced a third-party review of its safety policies after the publication of Hearst’s investigation. The organization said it will make the findings of the review and its plans for improvement available to the public. The organization has not provided a timeline for the completion of the review.