EXCERPT FROM: Wisconsin State Journal
By Jason Stein
State officials looking for cases of fraud in a child-care subsidy program are investigating 15 providers getting paid by the state to watch school-age children nearly full time, saying they'll likely suspend payments to at least one of the centers as a result.
The child-care centers are authorized through the Wisconsin Shares program to watch large numbers of children, who are already supposed to be in school all day, for more than 35 hours a week - raising questions about whether the children are really receiving the care, the officials said.
"It could be (a legitimate) after-school program where parents are working late, or it could be an easy way to be perpetrating fraud," said Children and Families deputy secretary Henry Wilde. "This is one where if we see high numbers, we want to go out and look at these providers."
Stung by revelations by media and state auditors of fraud by child-care centers in the more than $350 million subsidy program, the agency is combing its databases for "red flags," Wilde said.
The department already has suspended payments to 99 suspicious providers, including at least two in Dane County. State officials didn't provide the names of the 15 additional child-care providers now under investigation or say where they are based. The vast majority of suspended providers so far are in Milwaukee County.