State shuts down unlicensed Newton daycare

NEWTON, Mass. — State investigators shut down an unlicensed Newton daycare Tuesday and parents were called to pick up their children after the unannounced visit by the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC).

Kiz Garden, a daycare for toddlers to preschoolers in Newton Corner, had surrendered its license in October 2016, “due to concerns about the program's health and safety, the EEC said in a statement.

But when the EEC returned to the business Tuesday morning to make sure it was no longer operating, investigators found they were still providing unlicensed child care.

“EEC contacted the Newton Police Department and worked with them to ensure that all children are returned safely to their families and that the program remains shut down,” the EEC said in a statement provided by Director of Communications Kathleen Hart.

Eui Choi, who ran the daycare with his wife, told Boston 25 News Tuesday he has been running the business unlicensed on an irregular basis, like a nanny service for families that he knows well and have few other options.

“A lot of things were nit-picked. There were some things that we could’ve done better, I’ll admit it,” Choi said. “But you know, overall we were providing a loving environment for the children, where they all wanted to come. They all wanted to be here. They were growing. They were learning.”

Choi said the children were never in any harm, despite one incident involving a lack of supervision of a child.

“(The child) wasn’t really in danger,” he said. “The child was essentially 15, 20 feet away, but out of sight for a brief, like, one- or two-minute period.”

Kiz Garden provided an inexpensive, bilingual program for Korean families, Choi said, a program difficult to find elsewhere.

He said he had applied for a new license but couldn’t meet some of the state’s requests, including hiring a lead teacher.

He placed ads and went to local colleges to recruit a teacher but could not find someone qualified for the job, he said.

“It’s regrettable what happened, the way it did,” Choi said. “I feel bad that for the families that we’re letting down.”

Cox Media Group