Deadly day cares: Number of unlicensed Kansas day care providers unknown

Charlie Mendenhall was 7 weeks old when he started going to a day care run by Carol Troyer.

It was the same day care his 18-month-old sister, Chloe, attended.

His mother, Allyson Mendenhall, came to pick him up from the day care near Goddard on March 11, 2014 – his second day there.

She knew something was wrong when she saw Troyer holding Charlie.

“She was coming up the stairs, and she just came up running, hollering, ‘Why isn’t he responding? Why isn’t he responding?’ The only thing I remember is just seeing his arm as she was holding him. It was just limp,” Mendenhall said.

“I just knew it wasn’t going to end right.”

The Mendenhalls waited in a back bedroom as emergency responders tried to save Charlie. Forty-five minutes later, an emergency responder told them they had done everything they could for him.

“And that was it,” Allyson Mendenhall said. “You just go home with one less kid.”

Eventually, the Mendenhalls learned the details of Charlie’s death. The autopsy report said Charlie died from SIDS. It says he was fed and then placed on a blanket on a carpeted floor on his stomach.

Safe sleep experts say infants should be placed alone, on their back and in a crib. Licensed day care providers in the state are required to learn about safe sleep practices.

Months later the Mendenhalls found out Troyer was not a licensed day care provider.

“We honestly thought you had to be licensed,” said Charlie’s dad, Troy.

State officials say they don’t know how many people provide day care without licenses.

Providers face no state penalty if they operate without a license, said Lori Steelman, child care licensing program director for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Instead, she said, the state offers education to try to get providers licensed.

Many people don’t realize they need a license, she said.

“This is an opportunity for us to educate them, to connect them with their local health departments to get that orientation and to understand the process for application,” Steelman said. “Really, that’s where our efforts are – helping them become licensed.”

That’s the limit of what the state can do, Steelman said, because it has authority to regulate only licensed facilities. After initial investigations of unlicensed providers, the state health department turns investigations over to local jurisdictions.

Local governments may punish unlicensed providers, but penalties vary from county to county, Steelman said. It is unclear how often providers are actually punished for unlicensed care.

Troy Mendenhall says that should change.

“There's really nothing anybody can do,” he said. “Slap them on the wrist, basically, and say, ‘You need a license.’ ”

After Charlie’s death, Troyer was not charged or fined for not having a license, according to county records.

District Attorney Marc Bennett said he does not remember any charges being pursued against any providers for not having a day care license in Sedgwick County in the past several years.

Troyer declined an interview but offered a written statement saying that Charlie’s cause of death was officially ruled as SIDS.

“My thoughts and prayers continue to be with the family and all of us who have been affected by this horrific SIDS tragedy,” the statement said.

In a report about Charlie’s death, the state health department said it had serious concerns about the circumstances.

Had Troyer been licensed, the report said, the state would have cited her for seven violations: Unsafe sleep practices, not sleeping in a crib or playpen, not sleeping on his back, sleeping with soft items, not tucking a blanket along the sides of the mattress, not checking on Charlie at least once every 15 minutes, and not having required safe sleep training.

Although Troyer wasn’t licensed, she did have insurance. The Mendenhalls eventually settled a wrongful death claim for $250,000 – the maximum allowed in Kansas.

Kansas law also doesn’t require unlicensed providers to disclose to parents that they don’t have a license.

“It’s hurtful to me that my son’s life didn’t mean anything in (lawmakers’) eyes,” Allyson Mendenhall said.

This story was originally published August 13, 2016 at 3:44 PM with the headline "Deadly day cares: Number of unlicensed Kansas day care providers unknown."