20-03-2025
Daycare safety concerns spark push for QR code access to inspection reports
ST. PETERS, Mo. – Viewer response has been overwhelming following our March 12 report on a St. Peters childcare center. FOX 2 revealed multiple inspection reports by state regulators in 2024 at Peanuts Gang Learning Center, including a case where inspectors alleged a 4-year-old child walked outside alone, and made it all the way to a Phillips 66 nearly a third of a half mile away before anyone knew he was missing.
Several parents followed up after our report, saying they had no idea about inspectors' findings at that center, including the mother of the child who reportedly walked to a gas station. She did not want to talk on camera but asked us to send her the inspection report involving her child.
'We need parents to know what's happening so they can choose the best site for their kid,' Missouri State Representative Mark Matthiesen said.
Matthiesen says inspection reports should be easier to find.
'Your report online, included a link to that website. We need more education and more avenues for parents to reach that link,' he said.
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Daycare inspection reports are compiled by an obscure office called the Missouri Office of Childhood under the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
'Most parents don't even know it exists,' Matthiesen said.
'I thought the most effective way of handling that would be for the Office of Childhood to require QR codes to be posted at the entrance where parents could scan it when they go and view, look up that daycare or any daycare and see what has happened within those walls.'
Grandmother Pam Franke, who picks up her grandkids from childcare, said, 'You just don't know what can happen out there when you're not there.'
Franke likes the QR code idea.
'That would be great. I mean, nowadays everybody's got cell phones. You just put that out there and no problem,' she said.
Matthieson believes the tool could also lead to daycares trying harder to do better.
'We need to hold them more accountable,' he said.
He's introduced HB 637 which he says will be discussed next Tuesday during the Childhood Committee meeting in Jefferson City.
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