Soho Unlicensed Daycare Tragedy

Yesterday, I read an article about a 3 month-old baby who died during his first morning at a Soho daycare, later determined to be unlicensed the entire 14 years it has been in operation. There were four adults present, including the owner and 15 children all under the age of 3. None of the adults had been trained in infant CPR and I assume the number of children present exceeded the legal limit in NYC for that age group.

This is horrible on many levels. No doubt, the parents did all of their homework and asked all of the right questions. Years ago, I attended a seminar on child safety and the presenter said that while almost all parents will ask about licensing, few to none will actually ask for documentation of it, including proof that the employees have all had proper training in life saving techniques. I am mentioning this because all parents should ask, and it should be no problem for the agency to comply if they are indeed properly licensed and trained. Or, parents can check with the licensing city or town if they don't want to ask. Clearly it is not enough just to assume that because a daycare is in a fancy neighborhood, or it's been around for ever and highly recommended by educated, professional parents, that there is no chance that they are lying about being licensed.

This daycare had a full website, reviews on yelp and was referenced as a source of income for the owners when the husband was taken to court for fraud. It was even written about in the NYT in 2005. And a report of an illegal childcare at that address was dismissed by the city last November after the lamest of investigations (they rang the bell and when there was no answer, asked the store downstairs). They were hiding in plain sight and in 14 years, the owner didn't care enough about her precious charges to ensure that someone on the premises knew CPR. I know that babies sometimes are lost for reasons that are never understood and this may be one of them. But, the story is haunting. My heart breaks for his parents.

While it's crazy that this daycare was able to operate for so long without a license, it seems that this was a case of SIDS and not a result of the daycare being unlicensed.

grahamb said:
While it's crazy that this daycare was able to operate for so long without a license, it seems that this was a case of SIDS and not a result of the daycare being unlicensed.

Agree. To me, it sounds as though it was a well-run but unlicensed day care where a baby happened to die of SIDS.

The comfort I take from this story is that at least the owners/staff at this facility will have to undergo training/licensing in order to re-open. I wonder if they were utilizing/aware of the "back to sleep" approach, as in, make sure the infants are not sleeping on their tummies. That campaign seems to have saved a lot of children as we so rarely hear of SIDS deaths anymore. I know it is not a 100% guarantee but it has been a literal lifesaver for many, many babies/families.

(The above PSA was brought to you by a social worker.)