The Legislative Auditor says there’s some problems with child care standards in Louisiana. Auditor Krista Baker-Hernandez says the state is lacking many of the nationally recognized regulations on child care, such as our core licensing standards…

“(Louisiana standards) do not meet all national best practices related to child to staff rations, group sizes, as well as oversight of family and in home providers.”

The report revealed Louisiana is one of only eight states to allow unlicensed caregivers to watch over six children at a time.

The Auditor also says when someone is suspected of improprieties in care giving, that there’s not an effective process in place to follow up with a proper investigation.

“LDE does not have an effective process to investigate and monitor complaints about licensed as well as unlicensed providers that may be operating illegally.”

And when those improprieties were discovered, Baker-Hernandez says they discovered the Department of Education did not always pursue proper disciplinary measures.

“LDE did not always issue enforcement actions to address deficiencies, and they don’t always have criteria regarding when to conduct follow up investigations.”

More From News Talk 96.5 KPEL