Gov. Mike DeWine defended the state’s existing safeguards currently vetting child care centers Monday afternoon, amid viral accusations of fraud at facilities getting federal and state funding.
In 2025, the Ohio Department of Children and Youth conducted more than 10,000 unannounced health and safety visits at the nearly 5,200 facilities statewide, resulting in 38 closures, DeWine said. Twelve closures came from fraud referrals.
“Fraud does occur, and if we think fraud doesn’t occur, we’re wrong,” he said.
Child care centers in Ohio receive subsidies based on attendance rather than enrollment, figures verified through personal identification numbers, headshots and location-based QR codes, DeWine said.
But the recent flurry of online videos targeting daycares run by Somali Americans and immigrants are not immediately indicative of fraud, he said, because centers are required to follow certain safety and security measures.
“There shouldn’t be a shock, when you see something on social media, and someone is going, ‘I can’t get into this (facility), no one will let me in,’” DeWine said. “Well, hell no, no one should let them in.”
His comments came after President Donald Trump’s administration froze federal dollars from going out to all 50 states as it investigates an alleged benefits fraud scheme in Minnesota. The freeze could interfere with services in about eight weeks in Ohio if funding disbursements don't resume before then, DeWine said.
Last Wednesday, dozens of GOP state lawmakers wrote a letter asking Auditor of State Keith Faber to look into Ohio for similar benefits fraud being committed.
Faber said in an interview with the Statehouse News Bureau on Saturday his office began that in early December, when stories first surfaced in Minnesota. He is concerned, he said, about a flood of unsubstantiated claims leading nowhere.
“We don’t want to go on a witch hunt, we don’t want chase down things that aren’t real,” Faber said. “But look, I would rather people err on the side of reporting and giving us the information to go back and verify and track that down.”
DeWine encouraged Ohioans to continue to report cases of child care fraud here.
