After personal experience with day care abuse, legislator proposes bills for more oversight

NINA MOINI: A package of bills aimed at protecting babies and toddlers at child care centers is making its way through the Minnesota House. The Bills are authored by Republican Representative Nolan West.

And the inspiration for the bills is rooted in his family's personal experience after discovering their daughter was abused at a daycare center in Blaine. Representative West is on the line now. Thank you so much for your time this afternoon.

NOLAN WEST: Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. I'm very sorry that this happened, I just want to say. And that must have been a really, really painful experience. What was your reaction when this happened? And would you tell us just a little bit, if you don't mind, about what happened?

NOLAN WEST: Yeah. Well, we sent our child to the Small World Learning Center, daycare, in Blaine. And she was there for several months. And we saw some strange bruising on her and different marks that really made no sense.

And my wife, immediately, her mom senses went off. And she was like, this isn't right. She took some pictures of it. But I didn't know any better.

And our family was like, well, no, no way. No way anything that we would think-- no way anybody would touch a baby or abuse a baby. There's just no way. This just happened.

So we actually didn't immediately move on it. And then, months later-- we had left the daycare-- then when a baby fractured their leg from the same abusers, everything spiraled out of control. And everybody realized what was going on. And we were able to generate felony charges against these abusers with these other families. And I wish we had known, or I had known-- my wife was right the whole time-- what was really happening so we could have prevented that from happening to anyone else.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. It's not something that most people would even think about, which is probably some of the thoughts that you were thinking as you were reflecting and then coming up with some of these bills. So I know there are quite a few with different intents. Would you mind just kind of walking through what the different focus areas are and why you felt these were important?

NOLAN WEST: I'm sorry. You were breaking up on my end.

NINA MOINI: Oh, that's no problem. I just want to know-- about there are different bills, correct, that you have introduced? Would you tell me just a little bit about them and their focus and why you felt that was important to get on that this session?

NOLAN WEST: Yes, of course. So I think about it in three ways. It's with abuse, there's prevention, which is the best. Detection, and finding out what's going on when it's happening. And then we need to have accountability at the end of all this.

And, in that vein, one of the things I'm working on is educating parents at the child's first well-visit on recognizing signs of abuse and how to report it. And that would have been key had I known, because we were educated on shaken baby syndrome at the doctor, but not this. And that was a big priority of mine.

And that should be included in the health omnibus bill. I believe it is, anyways, at this point. They're still negotiating, but I think it's already settled. And I'm also working on another bill that expands background checks to more sources so we can ensure that people who shouldn't be working with children aren't working with children.

That bill requires more work. We finally got it into a place, but it might be too late to make it. But I'm going to work on that next year. Then there's, for detection, we're working on the camera bill. And that's my number one priority, which would require cameras in daycare settings in rooms for infants and toddlers. But this is for child care centers only.

And it also requires 60 days of retention of that video. Because, in my daughter's case, the two abusers were on video, but they only kept video for a week. So one of them just pled guilty recently, and they pled out to two of the felony charges, even though we're talking months and months of abuse.

Like, the earliest cases we're aware of are in October, and this didn't come up until July. And my daughter's charge didn't amount to a conviction because all we had were pictures because it happened earlier, outside of this tiny seven-day window. Even the fractured leg didn't generate a conviction because it happened outside of that week.

So having the 60-day retention is absolutely crucial to, one, detecting these things happening, but also being able to get justice for the families that are affected in these rare circumstances. Most people who work in childcare are angels descended from heaven, so I don't want to besmirch them. And then, lastly, we need that video footage to make it through the court system and generate actual convictions for the families.

But also, I was working on one last bill, which was to establish a minimum penalty of one-year when you have felony malicious punishment of a child under four. That bill had a hearing, and a very good hearing, in the Public Safety Committee, and I'm hopeful it will be included. It's not in there right now, but I'm told it's not dead yet.

But that's another thing we'll be working on. And the camera bill, in particular, well, it was agreed to be in the omnibus bill in the committee-- I'm chair of the Children Families Committee. And since that signed agreement has happened, now there is some consternation about it. So I've been working with providers, and parents, and the department to make sure the bill addresses everyone's concerns and has minimal impact. And I'm continuing to work on it. But it will be part of the omnibus bill before it leaves my committee, that's for sure.

NINA MOINI: Some of these sound, to the ear, right when you hear them, like, well, great, hold on to the video. We'll get the cameras installed. But those things do cost those businesses and those providers money, time, and resources. Our state of Minnesota, like many others, I don't have to tell you, childcare crisis, childcare deserts. It's just so expensive for people. How do you balance these regulations and safety with continuing to make sure that the resource of childcare grows for Minnesotans?

NOLAN WEST: Of course-- that's one of the biggest concerns after abuse. As a Republican, we're very focused on the costs that are incurred on business from state regulation. So I've done a lot of work on this area. And many daycares already have cameras. The one she was at already has it.

So many won't even incur the cost of installing these cameras. The data retention piece is a very relevant question. So the original bill had a 90-day data retention so that they would have to keep it for 90 days just in case anything happened in those days.

We moved it down to 60 because I couldn't find an affordable option at 90 days. It was too expensive. And daycare is already expensive. My entire legislative salary after taxes is going to go to daycare once our second child is in.

NINA MOINI: I believe that.

NOLAN WEST: Which I am dreading. So I've narrowed it so it's infant, and toddler rooms, and the outdoor space only. And almost every daycare center has their outdoor spaces monitored. That's just property security, honestly, more than anything else. Not every daycare, but many, have it in the infant and toddler rooms.

The expense of that is around $1,000, to $2,000, $2,500, to get cameras purchased and installed. And then the data retention piece, I have found many options. The most expensive of them are around $500 a year.

So with those pricing in mind, I think it's not an undue burden considering how important it is. And to address any center that has a particular problem funding these to install them, we have a grant program-- the Access to Technology Grant Program. It already exists, but the bill puts another $500,000 into that program so that centers that can't afford to do this-- well, that feel pressured to afford to do this-- can access that grant program to install these.

And knowing that it's going to be, at most, $3,000-ish or less-- I guess a very large center might be four or $5,000 if they have multiple infant and toddler rooms-- and that is the very top end of the spectrum. The vast majority will be half or less of that. That $500,000 will go a long way in getting them all up to compliance. But many are already in compliance.

NINA MOINI: All right. Representative West, thank you so much for coming by and updating us on these efforts. Really appreciate it.

NOLAN WEST: Thank you for having me. I really appreciate you focusing on this issue, because it's very important to me, as you can imagine. So thank you.

NINA MOINI: Thank you. Take care. That was Republican Representative Nolan West from Blaine.