After 'scary' experience at St. John's daycare, this mom is pushing for child-care changes

A mother in St. John's says her son was unaccounted for during multiple official checks at his former daycare, and she is now pushing for changes to Newfoundland and Labrador's regulated child-care system so the experience she called "scary" doesn't happen again.

Natasha Hunt enrolled her toddler at Little Owl Land, a regulated home-based daycare in St. John's, just prior to the pandemic's start in March 2020. Trouble began this spring with a conflict over potty training, she said, and parent and provider parted ways in May. 

Regulated day homes — also called regulated family child-care homes — operate out of people's houses as opposed to daycare centres, but are still subject to a slate of provincial rules, including registering children with the licensing body and monthly on-site visits to check for compliance.

When Hunt complained about her experience to the agency that oversees such day homes in St. John's, however, she got a shock.

"She straight up told me at that time that she had no idea who my son was, who I was, and that's kind of when all of this came to light and you know, things got very alarming for me," Hunt said.

There were at least five home visits done on days when she had sent her son, she said, but to this day, "we still don't have those answers about where he was." A letter to Hunt from the agency Family and Child Care Connections states the home visitor never met nor saw her son.

His absence left her in "complete and utter shock," she said. She said she'd done a reference check before sending her son to Little Owl Land, read online reviews and visited it herself.

"We thought it was a really great place," Hunt told CBC News.

"But then to know that there were periods … that he was not where he was supposed to be, is very, very stressful and concerning and sad and scary for us as a family."

Hunt's son wasn't registered at the home, and never had been.

 A letter from Family and Child Care Connections to Hunt and her husband did not state their son by name but said "the agency was never made aware of this child's enrolment." 

Little Owl Land's operator, Zoya Amirmaafi, declined an interview with CBC News but said her taking on Hunt's son coincided with the arrival of COVID-19 in Newfoundland and Labrador, a factor that contributed to not sending the boy's registration in.

Amirmaafi disputes Hunt's allegations about the home visits, saying her son didn't attend her daycare on the dates when a worker from Family and Child Care Connections did.

Hunt, meanwhile, said she was emailed home visit reports from the agency, and cross-referenced them with texts and photos from Amirmaafi on the inspection dates that show her son attended Little Owl Land. CBC News has reviewed these visit reports and texts.