In Good Hands

How can you be sure that your child in day care is safe? a) The day care I chose was highly recommended. b) It's fully licensed and government-approved. c) My son's provider loves him as much as I do. d) All of the above. e) None of the above. The correct answer is "none of the above." Recommendations may be helpful in selecting a facility, but they're no assurance your child will be safe. The government may check, but you can't count on the government to effectively monitor day care. And banking on a provider's good will is no substitute for your own watchful eyes.

In Good Hands is a book about the importance of safe day care. It's also the story of one family day care that parents loved even after a baby died. They continued to drop off their children after a second infant died in the home. Doctors ruled that both children were victims of sudden infant death syndrome, but that didn't stop the police from launching a criminal investigation.

What followed was a medical and psychological mystery that divided a South Carolina community. The twists and turns rival the best crime fiction. Three murder trials over six years didn't answer all the questions-or banish lingering doubts. This is a book full of questions. There is still disagreement about what happened in that home, and who (if anyone) was responsible. The book also explores the challenges parents face when hiring a caregiver, and the emotional bonds they sometimes develop that can make severing the relationship agonizing-even when children's lives may be at stake.

This is also a book filled with answers. It offers a wealth of advice from experts who urge parents not to assume that their job is done after they select a facility. That's when the real work begins.

The Appendix at the end of the text features interviews with two therapists. As the second interview makes clear, the lessons in these pages aren't limited to parents of young children. They are just as valuable for people seeking safe care for other vulnerable individuals, like the elderly or people with disabilities.

Autorentext

David Hechler is the Executive Editor of Corporate Counsel magazine. His reporting, writing, and editing there have won top awards from the two major business press associations, American Business Media and the American Society of Business Publication Editors. Before he began working at the magazine in 2005, Hechler spent four years at an affiliate, The National Law Journal, where he was a senior reporter and then associate editor. A graduate of Grinnell College, Hechler went on to earn a master's in teaching from Brown University, and he taught high school English for seven years. He then completed a second master's degree at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, where he won the Sevellon Brown Award. Hechler's work at Columbia led to his first book, The Battle and the Backlash: The Child Sexual Abuse War (Lexington Books, 1988), which won critical praise from publications as disparate as The New York Times and the Michigan Law Review. In Good Hands was also incubated at Columbia University. Hechler began working on it there as a Prudential Fellow for Children and the News. For more information, visit http://davidhechler.com