PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The day care owners caught smoking out of a bong with young children nearby also falsified records and overcharged the state tens of thousands of dollars in a year.
Both Charity Araujo and her daughter Moriah Jaeger have been permanently banned from providing state-certified child care in Oregon.
Several state investigations into them and the Alphabet Academy Learning Center of Salem have been completed. They show a history of complaints, multiple investigations and lack of compliance for “many reasons, including overbilling, falsified records, violations of health and safety rules.”
“Once we were able to see the video that KOIN 6 collected,” said Megan Irwin, the acting director of the Early Learning System, “we had the evidence that we needed to substantiate the complaints to suspend and ultimately to revoke the child care providers license.”
A DHS investigator conclude a report with: “The history of this day care, Alphabet Academy Learning Center (aka ABC Academy) shows they will continue to rotate family members as the main provider to get licenses approved … to make themselves eligible for each and every agency involved, showing an egregious willingness to falsify documents, falsify records and continue the false statements to these agencies in order to get what they want.”
The investigator also determined Araujo and Jaeger “party, not just use the medical marijuana for pain relief, and that they were attempting to ‘smoke’ to get high.”No criminal charges to be filed
DHS will not release the results of the child protective services investigations, but KOIN 6 News confirmed neither Jaeger nor Araujo have been charged with child abuse or neglect.
The state is not pursuing criminal charges on the $75,000 they say they were able to prove the women fraudulently overbilled.
“We’ve taken administrative action, which was the most effective and cost-efficient way,” said DHS Fraud Investigations Manager John Carter. “There was clearly falsification, mainly in the area of number of hours reported as having watched the children in their care.”
Parents claims
Some parents claimed their children were sent home hungry despite the USDA federal and state funding the day care received. Parents also told investigators they would pay their co-pay with the EBT (food stamp) benefits.
DHS said that is not allowed.
Parents also told investigators the subsidized day care would add hours by using white-out on forms. Investigators determined those claims were true.
One mother of daycare children said Araujo “intimidated” her into signing for the falsified hours and threatened the daycare mom would “have her benefits closed down for non-payment” if she did not sign the falsified forms. She added Araujo claimed she “always sends copies of attendance records and they can’t see the white-out.”
Another parent took their child to a doctor to be tested for marijuana exposure. The DHS investigator’s report confirmed a positive test result.
Both DHA and the Early Learning Division’s Office of Child Care made across-the-board changes to prohibit medical and recreational marijuana use in Oregon day cares, the same rules that apply to alcohol and tobacco.
However, day care providers do not go through a drug-screening during a background check. Rhonda Prodzinski, the DHS Childcare and Refugee manager, said “it is a concern,” and added, “We would want to talk to OCC about it before responding.”
When KOIN 6 News asked Office of Child Care about any possible future changes to include drug-screening when considering applicants for daycare licensing the Public Affairs Director, Aimee Craig said the agency will be “doing health and safety inspections on all providers who receive subsidy- whether or not they are licensed,” in the next couple of years.
Craig added, “These are private, mostly small businesses that we regulate. They could all have drug-free work place policies. Drug testing is one moment in time and licensing and compliance is in place as an ongoing consumer protection.”Seeking comment on these issues
KOIN 6 News tried multiple times to speak with Charity Araujo and Moriah Jaeger. Their public records are listed to a personal mailbox rental service in Salem. KOIN 6 News contacted their family and friends and and left voice messages on Araujo’s phone.
KOIN also called a number listed as a cell phone for Jaeger. When asked for comment the woman’s only response was “No, thank you” but she did not confirm if she was Jaeger.
Both women are now flagged as disqualified for life in the background registry system and no longer able to do childcare in the state.
Neither Araujo or Jaeger responded to DHS to set up payment plans on the money they owe the state, KOIN 6 News was told.
Araujo owes the state $65,413.90, while Jaeger owes $10,319 for the last 12 months the daycare was in operation. DHS fraud investigators were only allowed to ask for the last year of records to inspect.
The Department of Revenue has several options for recovering the money – garnishing wages, withholding tax returns.
If they are not successful in that way, officials said they would hire a private collection agency.