One Mom’s Mission to Make Daycares Safer After Losing Her Baby at an Unsafe One

Kathryn Martin has been fighting for improvements in the laws protecting kids in daycare ever since her 3-month-old daughter Kellie Rynn died last year, accidentally suffocated by bedding at her child care – which enrolled 17 more children than allowed. Now she’s helping draft a bill, “Kelly Rynn’s Law” to prevent other families from enduring a similar tragedy (Photo by Kathryn Martin).

Kathryn Martin’s 3-month-old daughter, Kellie Rynn, died from what a coroner ruled “accidental suffocation by bedding” in the crib of her overcrowded in-home daycare in Greenville, South Carolina on Feb. 21, 2014. The owner was registered to care for six children, but according to South Carolina local news outlet The State, when emergency responders were called to the home they found 14 kids hiding in the basement with the owner’s daughter, a child outside alone, and another alarming discovery: a loaded gun in another room. 

STORY: I Lived in Poverty to Save My Son From Daycare

“My family and others placed our trust in a in-home day-care system,” Martin testified weeks later before a state Senate panel considering reform of the South Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS), which oversees registered and licensed daycares in the state. “We wanted a small, safe environment for our children…Kellie Rynn’s death has been considered an accident, but this tragedy could have been prevented.”

Kathryn Martin (Photo: WYFF)

Ever since then, the 26-year-old retail manager has been advocating for – and helping to win – increased oversight and regulation of child care facilities. Of the 153 childcare centers in Martin’s county recognized by DSS, only 60 percent are reportedly licensed or registered.

STORY: The Rise of 24-Hour Childcare Centers

Martin has already helped get a state law passed requiring DSS to made one unannounced visit to registered daycares each year. (Licensed daycares were already subject to such visits, but DSS previously could only inspect registered centers if there was a complaint). And now Martin is trying to establish even stricter oversight in 2015, courtesy of a bill that she’s helping draft called “Kellie Rynn’s Law.” 

DSS spokesperson Marilyn Matheus, for her part, tells Yahoo Parenting that the agency “is working with legislators to review additional safeguards that can further protect children in child care.” Examples of proposals being reviewed at present, she adds, include expanding DSS’s oversight of child care facilities with six or less children, increasing the number of DSS child care licensing staff to provide higher levels of monitoring and technical assistance, and requiring family child care homes to either become licensed or stop operating if they do not comply with registration requirements. “Protecting children,” Matheus says, “is paramount at the South Carolina Department of Social Services.”

Not surprisingly, Martin still wants to do more. She and her supporters are also raising funds to build a new early learning center in Greenville called the Kellie Rynn Academy (Their goal is $ 3 million). According to its website, the facility will be a place “where working parents can leave their children with confidence.”

But all this activism didn’t come instinctually. The evening Kellie Rynn passed away, Martin tells Yahoo Parenting, “Our priest visited and said, ‘So what are you going to do to make this positive?’ I was like, ‘What? I don’t know.’” But testifying, at the behest of a friend, made Martin realize that she could make a difference and help reform daycare oversight so that no other parent would have to endure the pain she and husband, Ashley, a second-grade teacher suffer to this day. “If I could have died that day to save her, I would have,” says Martin. “This is what I can do for her and this is my gift to her.”

Kellie Rynn Martin, the evening before she died (Photo by Kathryn Martin)

Martin is hoping to meet with state senators this month “to get things going” on Kellie Rynn’s Law, which would mandate that all home childcare centers in the state be licensed so they’re subject to regular inspections. “Training and oversight will follow,” she says. “It’s time for things to change. It’s ridiculous what we have to go through to make sure our kids are safe. I feel like, ‘Ok, if I’m going to be the only parent willing to stand up for change, then, ok, I will stand up.”

After all, Martin still wants to set a good example for her daughter. “The way I look at it, we’re still parenting Kellie Rynn even though she’s not here. We still have to teach her to stand up for what you believe in.”

The work carries an added bonus too: Keeping Martin’s baby girl fresh in her mind. “I have this fear of people forgetting her, of forgetting that I have a daughter,” the mom admits. “Advocacy is one of those ways we can remember her and keep her legacy going.”

Kathryn Martin wears Kellie Rynn’s picture on a pendant. (Photo: WYFF)

And though the pressures of having one’s daughter serve as the poster child for a cause could be intimidating, they don’t phase Martin. “It’s empowering actually,” she says, “knowing that our daughter can make a difference and be recognized for it.” The newborn “lit up our lives for the three-and-a-half months she was with us. And she continues to light the world.”

Please follow @YahooParenting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Have an interesting story to share about your family? E-mail us at YParenting (at) Yahoo.com.