There are more than 1,000 family day-care centers in western Pennsylvania.

These are day cares that are run out of people's homes and are exempt from many rules that govern larger centers. For example, there are no regular inspections.

Team 4 found day-care operators arrested on drug and child abuse charges, and one who got a state permit even though her husband had a long rap sheet.

The following investigative report by Team 4's Paul Van Osdol first aired Aug. 6, 2003, on WTAE Action News at 5 p.m.

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Van Osdol: "Why was there crack cocaine found in your house?"

Linda McCoy, day care operator: "Go ask the person who put it there."

Van Osdol: "Who put it there?"

McCoy: "Go ask him."

Van Osdol: "Who is that person?"

McCoy: "Leave me alone."

McCoy runs a home day care on Pittsburgh's North Side. In January, she was charged with five drug counts after police searched her house and found crack cocaine. Police also found an AK-47 assault rifle.

The head of day care inspections for the state Department of Public Welfare's Pittsburgh office did not know about McCoy's arrest until six months after it happened, and only because Team 4 told her.

Charlotte Kennedy, Department of Welfare: "We would have no way of knowing if someone was arrested."

The state also did not know about James C. Britt's criminal record when it approved a day care for his wife, Joann, to be run from their home in Tarentum.

Background checks are only done on the day care operator, and Joann Britt was clean. But before she got a day care permit, her husband, James Britt, had been convicted of burglary, theft, receiving stolen property, criminal mischief and violating a protection from abuse order.

Just seven months after Joann Britt got the day care, she filed for another PFA. She said her husband was a "crack addict" who had "thrown objects toward the children' and 'destroyed the kitchen." Seven months after that, the state shut down her day care.

Jacqueline Harrison's home day care also was shut down. Just six months after the state approved a day care for her home in Lawrenceville, she was charged with aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of children.

A police report said one child in Harrison's care was taken to Children's Hospital and diagnosed with a "life-threatening blood disease" that was the result of "substantial medical neglect." A second child also had infections resulting from "negligent care."

Like other family day cares, Harrison got a permit even though no inspector ever entered her home.

Van Osdol: "So you don't go out and actually visit the family day care homes before you give them a permit?"

Kennedy: "We do not."

Van Osdol: "Why not?"

Kennedy: "It's the way the law's structured."

The law gives other exemptions to home day cares. Larger centers are inspected annually, but home day cares are inspected randomly, with no more than 15 percent of them inspected per year.

Van Osdol: "So it's conceivable they could go two years without getting any kind of inspection?"

Kennedy: "Yes, they could -- and perhaps longer, depending on if they've been operating for a while."

Regular day-care centers are required to carry liability insurance, but so-called family care centers are not.

That became an issue last year in Greene County, when 1-year-old Eli Baily was struck and killed while playing at Noah's Ark day care in Morgan. According to a police report, the day care owner's husband accidentally ran over Eli in his truck.

Bill Baily, father: "I think it was a preventable accident. I think my son died needlessly."

Bill and Marcy Baily say their complaint is with the state, not the day care. They say their son's death might have been prevented with stricter rules.

The lack of insurance means the Bailys cannot sue the day care to cover the costs of psychological counseling for their 5-year-old daughter. Insurance is only required if a day care has seven or more children.

Marcy Baily: "What makes the difference between six and seven? One child that happens to be my child, that I don't have. That's the difference."

Van Osdol: "Is it a concern, when you have a two-tiered system like this, that there may be some centers that fall through the cracks?"

State Rep. Don Walko, D-North Side: "Certainly. I think you've proven that with your investigation."

Walko co-sponsored a bill to toughen regulations for family day cares -- more inspections, criminal background checks on family members and a requirement for insurance.

Walko: "If you have one, two or three children in a day care center, their needs are just as important as if you have fifty children in a center."

Bill and Marcy Baily are lobbying for tougher laws.

Marcy Baily: "All I want to do is save someone else from going through a little bit of the torture that we're living."

In addition to McCoy and Harrison, Team 4 found three other family day care operators in Allegheny County with criminal records. One other operator has a pending drug possession charge.

The owner of the Noah's Ark day care declined to talk to Team 4. After Eli Baily's death, state inspectors did not cite the daycare with any violations.

The daycare bill passed the state House in June, but has not come up for a vote in the Senate. Hearings will be held this fall.