The state of Ohio cut off funding to 10 daycare centers, including seven in Franklin County, after discovering overpayments of $1 million.
The Ohio Department of Children and Youth reviewed attendance records and payments for a random sample of 400 licensed child care providers. It cut off funding for the 10 centers and flagged another dozen providers for $130,000 in overpayments due to administrative errors.
The 10 centers losing funding are:
The overpayments represent 1.6% of the $969 million annual program, state officials said in a news release.
In March, The Dispatch reported the state had identified $1.1 million in overpayments to 61 license holders in 2025 based on inaccurate attendance records.
Each day, approximately 285,000 children in Ohio receive care in state-licensed facilities, and 116,000 of those children benefit from financial assistance for childcare each month. Ohio’s 88 counties determine eligibility for publicly funded child care. The state reimburses the childcare providers based on local market rates.
The state system came under scrutiny in late December and early January, when online allegations suggested Somali-run day cares nationwide reported nonexistent children to fraudulently claim public funding. Social media posts from conservative influencers started in Minnesota, home to the largest population of Somali immigrants in the U.S. and spread to Ohio, home of the second-largest Somali immigrant population.
Following those allegations, Columbus police responded to calls about strangers trying to enter daycare centers to check whether the places were actually watching children.
Since Jan. 1, the Ohio Department of Children and Youth has received twice as many fraud tips as it received in all of 2025.
“Any dollar not used to support children and families is unacceptable,” Kara Wente, DCY department director said. “We will continue to find ways to prevent fraud from happening, and when fraud is reported or suspected, we will continue to investigate quickly, act on our findings, and recover the funds.”
The department will try to collect the overpayments from the child care providers. If unsuccessful in 45 days, the debt collection will be taken over by the Ohio Attorney General’s office, which has an internal collections team as well as outside firms.
State government reporter Laura Bischoff can be reached at lbischoff@usatodayco.com and @lbischoff on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio cuts off money for 10 child care centers due to overpayments
Reporting by Laura A. Bischoff, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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