The director of the state division that licenses daycare and child care facilities said the agency will do “everything in our power,” to see that what happened at a Lyman daycare won’t happen again.

“I do believe we could have done a better job with this case,” said Kenneth Albert, director of the Bureau of Licensing and Regulatory Services with the Department of Health and Human Services Thursday afternoon. “I don’t like to think anything like this would happen again on my watch.”

Albert was referring to Sunshine Childcare and Preschool on Route 111 in Lyman, which was granted a conditional license by the agency last August, following an investigation into complaints about what allegedly happened there. The report found Cheryl Dubois had been abusive, humiliating and intimidating toward children and staff, raising questions about why the daycare license was not revoked. The daycare has since closed.

“The totality of all of the dynamics in this childcare creates a toxic and unsafe environment for children to be present in, as well as staff persons,” the summary of deficiencies states.

Albert on Thursday spoke with reporters in a conference call for about 90 minutes, outlining policy changes the agency has already made and those being contemplated, including a provision announced Wednesday that parents will now be informed when abuse is uncovered at a child care facility ”“ information previously held as confidential. He said he began discussing the change in June 2013 with the Attorney General’s Office, and the decision was made in October. It will go into effect with the next occurrence, he said.

Albert said an earlier inspection of Sunshine Childcare and Preschool in May 2012 turned up some findings, but the state at that time felt a revocation of the Dubois’ childcare license wouldn’t survive an appeal. Revocations are easier to conduct once a conditional license has been issued, he said.

Albert said a confidential internal examination, a root cause analysis, has begun into what transpired with the Sunshine Childcare and Preschool investigation. He said the report, to be generated within 30-60 days, won’t be shared with the public because those involved are more likely to talk about what transpired if the information remains confidential. He said he’s not opposed to talking about any policy changes that come as a result of the internal review.

“I want to have an appreciation of all of the facts of this and why certain decisions were made ”¦ I don’t understand why the decisions were made, so that is why there is an internal review,” Albert said.

Any finding of abuse or neglect at daycare and child care centers will result in some sort of concurrent licensing action; a license may be conditional, revoked, or suspended, he said.

Dubois, who owned the child care center with her husband Daniel, was found by state inspectors to have force-fed milk to children; pulled a chair out from under one child, causing him to hit his chin on a table; put soap in the mouths of two children, yelled and swore at children and staff; and grabbed one child by the biceps and slammed him down to the floor. As well, Cheryl Dubois had not revealed on her licensing applications that she had prior contact with the department’s Child Protective Services division.

Albert said the department has secured funding to develop a system for fingerprinting as a background check for long-term care facilities and it could be used for child care facilities as well.

Currently, the division relies on people to tell the truth on applications for licensure, including whether they’ve had prior contact with Child Protective Services. Cheryl Dubois had none under her current name, but she has apparently had two other names. Albert said the division denied 18 licenses in 2012, five of which were related to history with Child Protective Services.

He said the division is looking for grant funding and has secured some to develop a web-based portal where parents and others can check the public record of any childcare provider, statements of any deficiencies resulting from inspections and any other information that can be legally shared. The cost of such a portal is pegged at “several hundred thousand dollars,” he estimated. Albert said legislation may be required to implement such a system, and estimated such a system would not be in development for about a year.

Albert said the division has 12 licensing inspection positions, two of which are vacant, and five inspectors who specifically investigate complaints of abuse and neglect. Each licensing inspector has a caseload of about 180 child care establishments, down from about 200 three years ago. He said inspections are generally up to date in most areas of the state except for York County, where they’re a bit behind. At one time, he said, there were 14 licensing inspectors. The licensing division receives 55-60 reports of abuse every month, he estimated.

Albert again acknowledged he believes the division could have done a better job in the Sunshine case, and said he never wants to be in a position of letting Maine citizens down.

“I’d like to promise this will never happen again, and I hope it doesn’t,” Albert said.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.