Hawaii is the lone state in the country that still does not publish annual tallies of deaths, serious injuries and substantiated child abuse in licensed childcare. That gap leaves parents with no clear snapshot of safety across more than 700 licensed programs statewide. State officials say they cannot generate those statewide numbers until they formally define “serious injury” and “child abuse” through an administrative rulemaking process. Advocates and grieving families counter that the delay forces parents to judge daycare safety without the basic statewide data that families elsewhere can easily see.
State Fails To Publish Key Childcare Data
Reporters recently found that the Department of Human Services website still lists its last available counts for serious injuries and substantiated abuse as 2016, and that death statistics were only brought up to date after journalists started asking questions, according to Honolulu Civil Beat. DHS licenses and oversees more than 700 childcare facilities across the islands, and its licensing staff continue to investigate complaints from parents and workers. Civil Beat reported that the agency turned down multiple requests for in-person interviews and instead responded in writing.
What Federal Law Requires
The Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014 requires states to post inspection reports and yearly aggregate numbers of deaths, serious injuries and substantiated child abuse in childcare programs, according to the Administration for Children and Families. Federal rules and guidance give states some leeway in how they define those terms, but the law still expects state lead agencies to make the information easy for parents to find and understand.
Why Hawaii Says It Can't
State officials say Hawaii has not yet adopted consistent, formal definitions for “serious injury” and “child abuse,” and that without those definitions their data systems cannot reliably generate the federal aggregate counts, a concern that has surfaced in national reviews of state compliance. A 2024 analysis by The 19th identified Hawaii as the last state still lacking finalized definitions, and regulators in the islands say that rulemaking is in progress.
Parents And Advocates Call For Transparency
Parents who began pushing for change after a series of heartbreaking cases say the absence of public statewide data makes it harder for families to judge risk. Cynthia King, whose infant son Wiley Muir died at a licensed in‑home daycare in 2014, told reporters she feels “disappointment and severe frustration” that the state has not followed through on tracking incidents. She has continued urging lawmakers and DHS officials to provide clearer public reporting, according to Honolulu Civil Beat.
What Parents Can See Now
For now, parents can find individual provider inspection reports and lists of deficiencies online, and DHS keeps investigative files that the public can review for two years, according to the Hawaii Department of Human Services. What is missing from those provider pages are clear, cumulative counts of serious injuries or substantiated abuse at each site, which means families who comb through the database still do not get the kind of statewide safety overview that federal law envisions.
Legal And Policy Gap
Federal rules instruct state lead agencies to post monitoring results and aggregate totals on a user-friendly public website, a requirement spelled out in 45 CFR §98.15. At the same time, federal officials have warned states not to adopt definitions so broad that the resulting numbers could mislead parents. Advocates say that tension between transparency and consistent measurement is at the heart of Hawaii’s holdout status.
What's Next
DHS documents show the agency has taken public comment while updating its Child Care and Development Fund state plan and held a public hearing on its draft in May 2024. Federal officials can also offer technical help to states that ask for it. Until Hawaii finishes its rulemaking and starts posting the aggregate counts online, parents and advocates say they plan to keep pressing DHS and lawmakers for a firm timeline so families can make safer childcare decisions.
