MENTOR, Ohio — Allegations of daycare fraud have become quite the hot topic, but Ohio is working round-the-clock to make sure it's not prevalent here.
Viral claims of fraud had led to online outrage from Republicans in Minnesota and now in Columbus, Ohio, scrutinizing the city's Somali community.
"The Somalians are ripping off our country," President Donald Trump said Sunday.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, after already fighting back on social media, held a press conference on Monday to dispute the viral claims.
"We are as vigilant as we can about fraud," the governor said.
RELATED: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine defends Somali daycares amid viral fraud claims
DeWine explained that the Department of Children and Youth (DCY) has extensive steps to prevent fraud, such as paying by attendance of children, not the initial enrollment number, audits and surprise visits.
"Does fraud occur? Yes, fraud occurs," he said. "Our job is to do everything we can — no fraud is acceptable."
There are 5,200 childcare centers in the state, he said, and with their fraud detection, 12 facilities were shut down in 2025 — less than 1% of state-funded centers. There were about 60 cases of the state overpaying daycares $2 million in total, but the department felt that the cases were unintentional, and they got the money back.
There has been some fraud involving Somali businesses, but there is also fraud with non-Somali businesses. Still, there were only 12 out of 5,200, he said. He did not detail how many of the 12 were run by Somali community members.
DCY told me 2026 reviews started on Jan. 2 at the start of the calendar year with 400 licensed child care programs (a random sampling across the state).
Approximately 160 child care centers in Northeast Ohio are included in that sample.
"After June 2025, when the Department of Children and Youth reminded all families and providers that they cannot share PIN numbers, we established new policies to further safeguard the children in care and Ohio taxpayer dollars that include a process for random monthly case reviews and targeted reviews for high risk practices," a DCY spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Of those on the list for inspection, My Kids Childcare in Mentor is one of them.
My Kids Childcare Owner, Anita Dokollari, said she received an email Friday afternoon that an inspector would come anytime between then and Wednesday.
DCY confirmed it dropped in this week to "simply collect data and documentation."
The department is also assessing the student-to-staff ratio.
While random inspections are normal for daycare facilities in Ohio, Dokollari said this one felt different.
"It feels very uneasy. I feel like an isolated situation has put a spotlight in a negative way on childcare centers and now it's questioning our integrity," she told me.
Dokollari explained that the state inspector requested attendance data from the last 90 days.
Right now, My Kids Childcare serves 84 kids.
"She (DCY inspector) did a walk through the building. She went into each and every classroom and she took a head count of how many kids we had in our care, the names of all of our employees that were caring for the kids and then we ended up going into the office where she ended up adding all the rosters that we had provided her with. Prior to her departing, she ended up doing another walk through just to make sure that the same numbers were there and the same individuals continually caring for kids were there," Dokollari said.
I asked Dokollari if she feels like the inspection went well.
"Oh absolutely and not just that I feel that it went well, the inspector reassured us that it went really well. She was very nervous coming here thinking us being such a large center that it was going to be a long day for her, but she praised us on our ways of implementing our procedures and keeping the records the way that we did — that we made it extremely simple for her," Dokollari said.
Not only are random checks implemented, but Dokollari said there's an extensive background and medical check for each employee she has.
Additionally, there's a tap machine designed for families to "clock" their children in and out of the facility.
The machine requires a personalized pin and a photo of the person picking up and dropping off the child.
"They (the state) randomly change their pins for them to authenticate it with everything going on," Dokollari said.
I feel that Ohio has a lot of rules and regulations put into place, and I feel that it justifies for the work that we do because it is very important to make sure that the children receive the utmost care.
Dokollari told me the process she has to go through to prove herself and her business does not intimidate her.
She appreciates the extra mile Ohio goes through to make sure childcare programs are running as they should.
"It has brought us closer together and it has allowed us to build a stronger partnership with the state. I'm not intimidated to give my inspector a call or to email her with any questions that I might ask. I rather ask and be told how to do it right than keep doing it wrong and then be found at fault," she said.
No DCY report detailing its findings is available as of Wednesday night.
Dokollari is hopeful the future report will prove Ohio is on the right track.
"It's extremely important — the quality of care for kids. Even as a parent sometimes, you know, we fail and we're not there every second of the way, but here in group care settings it's doable because there are so many of us to uphold the requirements and everything that is being asked of us," Dokollari said.
Dokollari said her passion to serve families will continue regardless of the climate surrounding childcare programs.
