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Offenders
Grill Masters
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child care providers did not inform the
agencies that offenders lived there, the audit
showed.
Of the 17 in child care homes, only two
were Department of Early Learning
licensed family home child cares. Since the
audit, the department has revoked the
licenses of one of them and the other went
out of business, said department spokes-
woman Amy Blondin.
Another 11 cases involved homes where
foster kids were living, including one case
where a former foster child returned home
after committing some crimes. In several
other cases, the sex offender and the care
provider were related. The audit reported
that DSHS reacted quickly, revoking foster
care licenses and removing children from
the homes.
The agency also changed its proce-
dures to more regularly compare the
addresses of registered sex offenders
with the addresses of all the people
who care for foster kids, as well as
the elderly and people with develop-
mental disabilities.
Sen. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood,
said he expected to propose a bill
next year to more closely watch unli-
censed day care homes for people
shouldn’t be living or working
— Rep. Bruce Dammeier, who
near kids.
R- Puyallup
“We have our work cut out for us
in the state of Washington,’’ Carrell
said.
He previously focused his lawmaking
Superintendent of Public Instruction per-
sonnel who investigate teachers and other activities on social service fraud but this
audit inspired him to look further.
certificated school workers.
“My approach for next year will be more
Dammeier said he was glad the superin-
tendent’s staff took ownership of the prob- comprehensive,’’ Carrell said. “I need to
look at other ways that kids may be taken
lem and quickly worked to correct it.
“I’m glad we’re talking about this as a advantage of.’’
DSHS and the Department of Early
gross bureaucratic oversight instead of an
investigation afterward when a child had Learning are working together to improve
the way they check applicants and monitor
been molested,’’ he added.
Of the 28 other sex offenders found providers, the audit reported. The agencies
through the audit, 17 lived in places where also have developed procedures to flag
child care was provided and the rest were provider files so they cannot slip back into
living in foster homes. In 24 of the cases, the system without a careful check to see
offenders lived there undetected because the that they are obeying laws and procedures.
reached out to the district or state education
department to alert them.
The audit also faulted the State Patrol for
not passing along conviction data from
other states.
The auditors contacted the state Depart-
ment of Corrections to find out if any of the
offenders found through the audit were
under state supervision while living in the
child care or foster homes. Five were under
supervision at the time, but none were sus-
pected of breaking the law while living near
children.
The auditors contacted the state education
department before they completed the audit.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy
Dorn instituted some policy changes to fix
the problem and added checks of classified
employees to the work of the Office of the
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
‘I’m glad we’re talking
about this as a gross
bureaucratic oversight
instead of an investigation
afterward when a child
had been molested’
Derick Williams samples a burger before rating its quality as a judge at the
annual UNCF Barbeque for Education Aug. 4 at Judkins Park. Participants
competed for a BBQ grill and the title of UNCF Grill Master.
Traffic
continued from page 1
Northeast 52nd Street have suggested he tell
the city his is also a planter box, one where
the seeds have yet to sprout.
“It just seems ridiculous and totally con-
trary to everything this city is about,’’ said
Nekole Shapiro, another neighbor. Aren’t
we trying to create community?’’
On Friday, after conversations with
Nunes-Ueno and a call from The Seattle
Times, the Transportation Department said
it would put together an internal task force,
to include the city traffic engineer and the
legal department, to examine the issue.
“Given that we have never permitted a
sandbox in the right of way before and we
have questions about how to do so safely,
we are going to allow this one to temporar-
ily remain as we consider whether a change
is needed to allow this sort of use,’’ said
Rick Sheridan, spokesman for the depart-
ment.
The city says current law doesn’t permit
play structures in the right of way and must
allow access for people getting in and out of
cars, said Barbara Gray, director of street
use and urban forestry within the city
Department of Transportation.
“The concern is safety when you put kids
close to the travel lane,’’ she said. Both the
city and the homeowner could be legally
liable if children were hurt because they
were playing near the sandbox. The city
also prohibits stand-alone basketball hoops
because of the danger of kids running into
and actively playing in the street, and it has
sent similar warning notices.
But Gray also notes that until 2008, the
city didn’t allow planter boxes on the plant-
ing strip. They are now allowed if the home-
owner gets a free permit from the city and
meets the requirement for public access and
car-door clearance, she said.
She said there has been a debate among
pedestrian advocates and urban planners
some designated streets, pedestrians and
cyclists have equal right to the street and
cars can’t go faster than walking speed.
He gives a local example, Pike Place, the
brick road through the center of the Pike
Place Market, where people wander and the
cars move slowly to avoid them.
“When the cars don’t own the road but are
sharing the road, its actually safer for pedes-
trians,’’ he said. “The notion that the only
‘I told them this is a silly rule. We should be
encouraging neighbors to get together and
children to play outside’
— Paulo Nunes-Ueno
about the benefits of “front-yard’’ activities
and whether they help activate neighbor-
hood streets and make them more people-
friendly.
“We want to be both innovative and pru-
dent when making these decisions,’’ she
said.
The Sightline Institute in Seattle, which
advocates green public policy, sees the
sandbox debate as an opening for the city to
reconsider how it prioritizes street use, par-
ticularly away from major arterials.
Clark Williams-Derry, research director,
points to Scandinavian countries where, on
way to keep kids safe is to separate them
from the street is contradicted by evi-
dence,’’ he said.
He agreed it would be a tragedy if a kid
ran out into the street and were hit by a car,
but he said not having a sandbox doesn’t
eliminate the risk.
City Councilmember Mike O’Brien, a
former Sierra Club leader, said the city
should try to balance creating more public
spaces for kids to play with keeping them
safe.
“The safest place for the sandbox is in the
backyard, but then you lose out on all the
community building,’’ O’Brien said. “Plant-
ing strips are an underutilized space.
There’s a public-safety benefit when people
on a street know each other and look out for
each other.’’
Several of Nunes-Ueno’s neighbors said
parents on the street frequently have talked
about how to slow down traffic. Cars cut
through from a busy nearby arterial, often
going faster than seems safe, they said.
“The traffic circle doesn’t really slow peo-
ple. What are you going to tell the kids?
Don’t go out and play? They’re all friends.
They walk up and down the street to each
other’s houses,’’ said the neighbor, Shapiro.
Nunes-Ueno got the news Friday that the
city would allow the sandbox to stay in
place while it studies whether some play
structures can be safely permitted.
“I’m so excited. This is wonderful news,’’
he said.
He said ceding all the streets to cars cre-
ates a vicious cycle: nobody is on the street,
the cars use it like a speedway, and nobody
goes out there because it isn’t safe. He said
he’s inspired by some of the international
thinking about how to create “outdoor
rooms’’ that slow down traffic as well as
provide more public space.
“We can have a conversation as a city
about how to help create friendly gathering
spaces in front of houses,’’ Nunes-Ueno
said.
August 8, 2012 The Seattle Skanner Page 3