A stairway without a safety gate. Rodent droppings on one floor, dog feces on another. A fridge that opened up to insulin and cough syrup, and a shelf of red wines, both easily accessible by kids. Missing or incomplete background checks for child care providers and staff.
These are a few of the more graphic examples of rules broken by Rhode Island child care providers, outlined in a new report by the Rhode Island Office of the Auditor General.
In fact, none of the 50 providers surveyed in the report were without at least one violation.
Auditor General David Bergantino said via email Friday that it’s basically “expected” for providers to have at least one violation, given “the number of regulations they are subject to.”
More meaningful is the percentage of significant noncompliance, Bergantino said.
The audit found that 60% of the 50 child care providers reviewed had the distinction of “significant noncompliance,” meaning they failed to meet at least 10% of the applicable health and safety requirements. Seven providers — 14% of the sample — were out of compliance with more than a quarter of the regulations reviewed.
From July 2022 through February 2025, Bergantino and his office reviewed 50 state-licensed child care facilities. Part of that period was spent on reviewing documentation, while on-site provider visits were conducted from November 2024 through February 2025.
The complete lineup of violations included:
- 232 violations of facility health and safety requirements
- 920 cases of noncompliance for documentation for providers and staff. The Auditor General noted 320 deficiencies for staff, out of 464 staff overall.
- Background check noncompliance was found at 26 of 50 facilities. Documents were lacking for 72 of the 464 child care staff in the survey.
- Out of 50 providers, 43 lacked complete documentation for children, with 174 children missing required documentation overall.
The state agencies responsible for ensuring compliance are the Office of Child Care, which licenses providers and conducts inspections, and its parent agency, the Department of Human Services (DHS).
But there are only six licensing agents, plus an aide, who work with the department, the report states. There are far more providers: 812 in all, including 416 center-based providers, which are inspected at least twice yearly, plus 396 family child care providers inspected at least once annually. Family care providers are smaller, home-based programs that serve fewer children.
Across both types of facilities, the average caseload for an inspector is 135 providers.
Per state guidelines, the audited agencies are allowed a response to the findings within the report. A four-page appendix includes a response from Nicole Chiello, the associate director at the Office of Child Care.
“It is important to note that the level and frequency of on-site provider monitoring is at a maximum for the number of staff who are available to the unit,” Chiello wrote. “The licensors work hard to ensure their caseloads are met and their providers are monitored. More staff for the licensing unit would bring the caseloads down and allow the possibility of more monitoring visits.”
Jim Beardsworth, a DHS spokesperson, said via email Friday that the department “takes all findings seriously and is committed to the highest standards in the state’s child care facilities.”
“All findings from the Auditor General were addressed immediately; as part of its due diligence, DHS also conducted follow-up visits to ensure compliance,” Beardsworth wrote, and added that the department expects providers to adhere to its standards.
The full report and a summary are on the Auditor General’s website.
‘Not surprising,’ but also ‘really embarrassing’
Data from the Rhode Island KIDS COUNT 2025 factbook shows that, in December 2024, there were 6,600 child care subsidies provided through the state’s Child Care Assistance Program, which helps low-income working families afford child care.
But, the Factbook also notes, the people who run centers out of homes are working class themselves: “Child care educators, almost all of whom are women and who are disproportionately Women of Color, are responsible for the safety, health, learning, and development of our youngest children yet make very low wages, and many are not able to meet their basic needs.”
Rep. Julie Casimiro, a North Kingstown Democrat, is not unsympathetic to the providers. She said in a phone interview Friday that the report is “alarming,” but also, “not surprising.”
“I think that while the report kind of slants toward the providers, I hold the Department [of Human Services] accountable,” Casimiro said.
A member of the Rhode Island House’s Committee on Oversight, Casimiro is well-acquainted with efforts to reform the department, especially when it comes to staffing.
“[Inspectors] can go in and find all these deficiencies, but they don’t have the time to go back and follow up because their caseload is so high.”
In the past two legislative sessions, 2024 and 2025, Casimiro led a bill that would have lowered the number of child care providers for which a single state licensing inspector is responsible. The bill would accomplish this by increasing the overall number of inspectors to the nationally recommended average of 50 to 60 providers per inspector. The bill made it to a committee hearing in 2024, but in 2025, it was introduced and failed to move any further. Nevertheless, Casimiro said she intends to reintroduce the bill again in the 2026 legislative session.
Casimiro said she’s not convinced the recurring problems with child care inspections are a funding issue for DHS, but rather an issue of how money is being spent. She added that she’d like to see an efficiency study for DHS like the one recently completed for the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) amid its $10 million budget deficit.
“This was a perfect example where we could be giving great care to kids and getting them off on a really good start, but we’re failing them when you read this report,” she said. “We say we care about kids in this state, but our actions don’t say that.”
Asked what she would say to parents who need child care and read the report, Casimiro replied, “I don’t know what to say to parents. I mean, this is embarrassing for the state. It’s really embarrassing.”
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
