美國託兒所實施雙標準 幼兒安全難以保障(1)

Deborah Stenseng had an unusual way of comforting infants in her home day care. When they got fussy or wouldn't take a bottle, the Duluth woman opened her shirt and had them suckle on her breast, even though she wasn't lactating or breast-feeding children of her own.

在一個位於明尼蘇達州德盧斯的家庭託兒所中，德博拉·斯坦森用一種不尋常的方式來安慰嬰兒。每當嬰兒吵鬧或不喝奶時，她會解開衣服，讓嬰兒吮吸自己的乳房，但她並沒有分泌乳汁或在給自己的孩子餵奶。

Worse, Stenseng deceived some parents about the practice and defied others who asked her not to do it with their children, regulators later concluded. Eventually, a complaint reached St. Louis County authorities, who shut down Stenseng's day care in January and revoked her license in April. "Serious personal boundaries ... were crossed," licensing officials concluded.

監督機構後來發現，更糟的是，一些父母對斯坦森這種做法毫不知情，另一些父母要求她不要這樣帶他們的孩子，她卻公然違背了這些父母的要求。最後，有人向聖路易斯縣有關監督部門投訴，監督部門1月取締了斯坦森的託兒所，4月吊銷了她的執照。頒發執照的官員說：“她越過了身體接觸的界限，事態很嚴重。”

Though extreme, Stenseng's case reflects an inherent problem in licensed family child care -- a problem that may be linked to a recent increase in child care deaths in Minnesota. Operating with minimal training, spotty inspections and inconsistent rule enforcement from one county to another, home-based providers can engage in practices that range from inappropriate to dangerous as they care single-handedly for as many as a dozen children.

斯坦森的例子雖然很極端，但也反映出獲得營業執照的家庭託兒所中存在的固有問題——這個問題也許與近日明尼蘇達州託兒所死亡事件增加有關聯。缺乏培訓、定期檢查過少及各個縣法律執行力度不一，在這種情況下營業的家庭託兒所負責人獨自照料多達12個兒童時，可能會採取各種方法，包括不恰當或危險的方法。

Minnesota has some of the leanest training requirements in the nation for in-home child care, according to a Star Tribune review of licensing data. Providers don't need high school diplomas or child development expertise to get licensed. Inspections are required only every two years, and one watchdog group estimates that Minnesota's ratio of inspectors to providers is aMong the nation's lowest.

《星論壇報》檢查執照的數據後發現，明尼蘇達州對家庭託兒所的培訓要求是全美最寬鬆的。家庭託兒所負責人無需有高中文憑或兒童發育的專門知識就可以獲得執照；每兩年才進行一次檢查。一個監察組織估計在明尼蘇達州，檢查員與託兒所負責人的比率是全美最低的。

The risk is that low standards result in low quality, said Amie Lapp Payne, who wrote an influential 2011 report for the National Association for Regulatory Administration on child-care safety. "If it isn't a regulatory requirement, they aren't going to do it," she said.

“風險就在於低標準造成低質量，”阿米·拉普·佩恩說，“如果不是法規要求，那些負責人不會去做。”阿米曾在2011年爲“全美兒童保育安全監督管理協會”寫過一篇影響頗深的報告。

Even with lax standards, thousands of Minnesota day-care providers nurture children skillfully, with no deaths or safety violations. But a review of public records shows that the rules allow substandard operators to stay in business and place children at former provider in Delano, for example, shoved a child's face into a pool of urine on her floor in early 2010 after discovering that the child had had a toileting accident. Documents show that the woman pressed hard enough to bruise the child's r providers dunked children in water, put hot sauce on their tongues, or grabbed or hit them hard enough to break bones. Altogether, the newspaper found 70 cases of corporal punishment since 2007 -- even though it is forbidden under state law.

在明尼蘇達州，即使標準很鬆，成千上萬的託兒所熟練地照顧孩子，沒有兒童死亡或安全違規行爲。但是查看備案材料後發現，寬鬆的法規縱容不合格的託兒所經營者留在託兒所行業，將兒童置於危險中。比方說，2010年，德拉諾曾有個家庭託兒所負責人發現孩子在地上小便後，把那個孩子的臉按到那灘尿液中。材料顯示那個女人用力太大，擦傷了孩子的前額。

In the last decade, the Legislature has considered raising training and safety standards for home child care several times. But lawmakers have repeatedly hedged, out of concern that higher standards would increase costs or represent government intrusion for these small businesses.

還有些負責人把孩子泡在水裏，給孩子喂辣椒醬，或者抓他們、打他們時用力過大，造成孩子骨折。《星論壇報》發現儘管明尼蘇達州法律禁止兒童體罰，從2007年起，共發生了70起這樣的事件。

Even the Minnesota Licensed Family Child Care Association, which represents small, in-home providers, has encountered resistance when seeking more funding so that providers could be mentored by experienced colleagues.

明尼蘇達州獲得執照家庭託兒所協會曾試圖籌得資金，讓家庭託兒所負責人接受有經驗的同行的培訓，甚至是此舉都受到了阻力。這個協會代表着小型家庭託兒所。

"[It's] the idea that, 'Why do people who are taking care of little kids need this?' " said Katy Chase, the association's executive director. "There's just a feeling we're born able to properly care for children."

“大家的想法是‘照顧小孩子的人爲什麼需要培訓？’”此協會的執行理事凱蒂·蔡斯說，“大家都覺得我們生來就會正確地照顧兒童。”

The result is a two-tier child-care system: Roughly 1,500 large child-care centers with more employees, higher training requirements and inspections by Minnesota regulators; and about 11,100 small in-home day cares, where providers often operate in isolation with little support and scrutiny.

結果就是雙重託兒所繫統：一重是約1500家大型託兒所中心，僱員更多，培訓要求更高，由明尼蘇達州的監管部門定期檢查；另一重是約1.11萬家小型家庭託兒所，負責人往往獨立經營，沒有人幫忙，很少有人來檢查。

'Adults get worn down'

照看者筋疲力盡

Reviewing licensing documents and death records, the Star Tribune found that 82 of 85 deaths in licensed child care since 2002 have taken place in homes, not centers. The number of deaths has nearly doubled in the past five years.

通過查看執照文檔和死亡記錄，《星論壇報》發現，自2002年起，有85次兒童死亡事故，其中82起發生在家庭託兒所中，而不是托兒中心中。過去5年中，死亡數字將近增加了一倍。

One of the few researchers to examine the causes of child-care deaths nationally said the absence of oversight increases risks for children.

有幾位研究者檢查了全美託兒所兒童死亡原因，其中一人表示缺乏監督增加了兒童死亡的風險。

Julia Wrigley, a sociologist at the City University of New York, found a higher rate of deaths in the nation's licensed home day cares than in centers. She concluded that large child-care centers are safer because they have multiple workers on hand to monitor children and stop co-workers from making mistakes.

紐約城市大學的社會學家茱莉亞·裏格麗發現獲得執照的家庭託兒所中兒童的死亡率比托兒中心要高。她的結論是大型托兒中心更安全，因爲托兒中心隨時有多位僱員照看小孩，並阻止同事犯錯。

"Adults can get worn down. They can get distraught and frustrated and these all can be risk factors when caring for a lot of little kids," she said. "If you have other adults there ... they can ensure that safe standards are maintained."

“成年人會筋疲力盡。他們會變得心煩、受挫。照顧小孩時，這些都可能是風險因素，”茱莉亞說，“但是如果有其他成人在那，他們可以保證安全。”過去十年中，明尼蘇達州的立法機關多次考慮增加家庭託兒所的培訓和提高對他們的標準，但由於擔心提高標準將增加成本，讓人覺得政府在干預小型企業，立法者對此多次閃爍其詞。

A Star Tribune review of 1,100 disciplinary actions issued since 2007 against Minnesota licensed day-care homes showed that the isolation of providers can play a significant role. More than 300 sanctions resulted from lapses in child supervision -- often because providers were spread thin.

《星論壇報》查看了2007年以來針對明尼蘇達州有執照的家庭託兒所發佈的1100項懲戒性措施，結果發現隔離家庭託兒所負責人作用顯著。超過300項處罰措施是因爲負責人沒有照看好孩子，這往往是因爲她們無力同時照顧太多孩子。

In Rochester in 2010, a provider confined two preschoolers to a basement for seven hours (keeping one in a 4-foot-square pen) to keep them away from a furnace repair man. At a Rose Creek day care last fall, a 1-year-old was left unattended and wandered two blocks away to a hardware store.

2010年，羅切斯特有一名家庭託兒所負責人把兩個學齡前兒童關在地下室7小時（有一個孩子被關在約1.2米的籠子裏），以讓他們遠離修爐工。去年秋季，在羅斯克裏克的一家日託所裏，一個1歲的孩子無人照看，獨自遊蕩了兩個街區，到了一家五金店裏。