FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Multiple teachers at Creative Learning Lab Academy tell WPTV they didn’t receive legally required background checks before they started working with children as young as Kindergarten.
The Florida Department of Children and Families said it is still working to get our news team information about any possible investigation or regulatory action against the school’s owners for more than a month. Our news team previously discovered the school wasn’t paying teachers on time, which led the school to close and then reopen within a 24-hour period. The school, according to a letter WPTV obtained, shows that the school officials closed earlier in October.
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State law requires teachers and any other school employee to get a level two background investigation. Those investigations include sending fingerprints to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which did tell WPTV it had some prints on file for the Fort Pierce private school. However, multiple employees told WPTV they didn’t receive any background checks before entering the school even though offer letters said a successful “background screening” was required for employment.
"They just did that out of formality to make it look like they were doing it,” said a teacher, who spoke to WPTV on the condition of anonymity due to possible retaliation and possible consequences on her professional teaching license as a mandatory reporter. “…The more we pushed and the more we questioned, they got agitated and upset.“
This teacher said it raised a “red flag” about the school because she used to teach in a public school where background checks were required. For example, this teacher said she just had a drug screening performed before she could shadow a teacher leaving a public school to take over her position. Another teacher at the school told WPTV he never performed any activity to turn over his fingerprints before he started teaching elementary school children.
Chris and Balanga Madison own the school, according to its website. When WPTV’s Ethan Stein reached out to Chris about the lack of background checks into his staff, he declined to deny those allegations and texted us a statement about the difficulties of running a private school.
“Thank you for all you do to ensure the safety of our children and also exposing what a struggle it is to educate the children in our community,” Chris wrote.
The school, according to Step Up for Students, received about $44,000 from taxpayer-funded scholarships from students attending the school. One teacher told WPTV that Madison branded the school as a place to educate underprivileged children in a private setting that offered free lunch, but the school lacked textbooks and materials for teachers and students, as well as a kitchen. Teachers also told WPTV the kids didn’t get uniforms even after parents handed over hundreds of dollars.
Eventually, the school told teachers they were struggling to make payroll costs in August. Then, teachers, who were scared to speak to WPTV for fear of losing their job, told WPTV staff started to leave.
"At any moment, the doors can close," a Creative Learning Lab Academy teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job, told WPTV in September. "We are struggling as much as they [parents] are struggling with what's going on. The people who are still there do care about the kids. We all do care about the school and want it to work. But, we're not sure it's going to (work)."
He said the departures have caused class sizes to grow. Staff members also claimed the school has been giving parents false reasons for teacher absences, such as saying employees are sick.
"We don't want to leave them astray," the teacher told WPTV. "But, you feel like at any point the doors may close."
The Florida Department of Education said it monitors compliance of the state’s background check law through the annual renewal process and can take regulatory action, including suspension or removal from scholarship participation, if a school fails to meet statutory requirements. It directed us to ask question about potential investigations to law enforcement, who directed our questions to the Department of Education, and the Department of Children and Families.
