WASHINGTON — Weeks after a Military.com article reported a shocking account of a toddler who was abused by day care workers at the Ford Island Child Development Center, U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda and House colleagues called on the Department of Defense to investigate and address on systemic failures to report child abuse at military child development centers.

Tokuda and fellow Reps. Sarah Jacobs, D-Calif., and Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash., led 21 other representatives in a letter to Ashish Vazirani, acting under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness. 

“The Department’s child care programs are critical to supporting military families, with direct impacts on mission readiness, morale, and recruitment and retention,” the lawmakers wrote. “Ensuring the safety and well-being of children on military installations is of paramount importance to the trust between service members, their families, and the Department of Defense, with significant implications for ongoing recruitment and retention issues.” 

The Military.com article, written by Steve Benyon, Rachel Nostrant and Konstantin Toropin, detailed the case of 15-month-old Bella Kuykendall, the daughter of an Army intelligence officer, who was “pinched, shoved, smothered and pushed up against a wall” by at least two day care workers.

As the story notes, “no official police or command reports were filed on the day law enforcement responded to the first report of potential abuse. The day care failed to properly document the injuries or to tell the parents the full scope of what happened, aside from the story that Bella had been crying. It was only after more than a year that two of the three workers allegedly responsible for abuse were charged in a civilian court. Two of the workers involved were allowed to keep working for five months before one was fired and the other quit.”

The case was one of about a dozen the site investigated before summarizing that “getting even basic information from the military’s day care system about what happened to their children requires jumping through enormous hoops over the course of months and years. Even when they are told their children were harmed, getting accountability seems impossible.” 

In the letter, the lawmakers said they were troubled by a “profound lack of transparency” regarding child abuse at CDCs and the rules that govern official response. They also pointed to the difficulty parents and guardians have in obtaining videos recorded off the monitoring systems installed in every CDC classroom and the withholding of departmental policies regarding CDCs.

“While we appreciate your swift action in referring these issues to the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General, we believe the Department cannot afford to delay immediate action that reassures service members and their families regarding the safety and well-being of their children,” the letter stated.

The lawmakers requested Vazirani respond to a set of questions by May 31:

1. What steps will the Department take to ensure immediate notification of suspected child abuse and harm to parents or legal guardians?
2. Will the Department review its policies on child abuse and harm reporting and response at CDCs to ensure timely delivery of incident reports and relevant CDC video footage to affected military parents and legal guardians?
3. How will the Department ensure that military CDC workers and installation officials are fully informed of the notification process to appropriate law enforcement, child protective services, and other relevant agency contacts for suspected child abuse at CDCs?
4. What steps has the Department taken or will take to clarify lines of responsibility for installation commanders and military police to investigate incidents or, as relevant, refer them to local law enforcement officials?
5. What steps has the Department taken to determine whether video monitoring footage of CDC classrooms should be maintained for more than 30 days to ensure accountability for suspected child abuse and harm?
6. What steps has the Department taken or will take to ensure that parents and legal guardians are notified of accountability actions taken against CDC employees for suspected child abuse and harm?
7. How does the Department intend to ensure that classification markings on policies relevant to CDCs do not hinder transparency with military families?

Tokuda, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and its Subcommittee on Military Personnel (which has jurisdiction over the Department of Defense’s child care policies) previously asked Army secretary Christine Wormuth about the Army’s child care reporting policies during an April 16 Army budget posture hearing.  

Michael Tsai covers local and state politics for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at michael.tsai@charter.com.