At least 350 Quality Rated daycares across Georgia were allowed to keep or even raise their star ratings after regulators cited them for serious safety violations, including child injuries and at least one child death, according to a sweeping new investigation. The findings center on a state rating system meant to signal quality child care to parents, but which critics say has instead let dangerous facilities keep collecting public money and glowing marks for years.
The investigation was published by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and examined whether Georgia's Quality Rated designations reflected conditions inside the centers earning them. The investigation found that the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning, known as DECAL, has advertised hundreds of daycares as quality childcare options even after documenting serious harm or risk to children in their care.
A daycare worker was arrested on a simple battery charge after an incident involving a one-year-old child.
Surveillance Video Led to an Arrest, But Not a Rating Change
Surveillance footage obtained by the AJC showed a daycare worker forcefully placing a one-year-old child on a cot. The worker was arrested on a simple battery charge, and the facility received a five-day state license suspension in July. Despite that suspension, the facility retained its 2-star Quality Rated status, the newspaper's reporting shows.
The AJC also reported that an infant at a Georgia daycare suffered a fractured skull and that a child at Oxford Academy was burned by bleach. Investigators also documented a baby boy who died after being left to sleep on pillows at a Georgia daycare, according to the seed reporting.
Why High Ratings Became a Financial Necessity
The reason star ratings carry such financial weight traces back to a 2021 mandate. Since December 31 of that year, DECAL has required that all child care providers achieve or actively pursue Quality Rated status to remain eligible for Childcare and Parent Services subsidy funding. The requirement makes Quality Rated status relevant to a daycare's finances, without making a high star rating essential.
Georgia's rating system uses one-, two- and three-star ratings, with voluntary standards meant to demonstrate quality beyond the state's minimum licensing requirements. But the system does not reconsider ratings when serious safety incidents occur in real time. Instead, Georgia's Quality Rated program operates on a three-year reassessment cycle, allowing daycares to retain their ratings for years after serious incidents unless officials actively intervene to suspend or alter them, as the AJC's investigation detailed.
Georgia does, under current policy, temporarily take a daycare's rating offline if officials determine it is badly deficient. Notably, Georgia does not automatically remove a daycare's quality rating when a facility is suspected of abuse, neglect or exploitation.
How Other States Handle the Same Problem
That stands in contrast to policies in other states. Texas will temporarily remove a facility's rating while investigating suspected abuse, neglect or exploitation, and Alabama can bar a daycare from its quality rating program for six months if a child is harmed or dies, according to the seed reporting. Several states tie safety outcomes directly to their rating systems in ways Georgia currently does not.
State Sen. Brian Strickland chaired the Senate Study Committee on Access to Affordable Childcare.
State enforcement options for safety violations range from written reprimands and administrative fines to service restrictions, mandatory monitoring, license suspension, license revocation, and emergency facility closure — a spectrum Hoodline previously detailed following a separate review of a child injury at a McDonough preschool.
DECAL Promises a 2027 Overhaul
The investigation described serious safety incidents involving children at Georgia daycares, including a child burned by bleach.
Georgia child care cases have drawn scrutiny, including a Thomson bailiff recently charged over fake CPR cards sold to daycare workers.
