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Heightened scrutiny of largely Somali-run childcare centers in the Twin Cities has raised questions about whether facilities, including those visited by a conservative YouTuber, were involved in fraud or operating lawfully.
Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) Commissioner Tikki Brown reportedly said Monday that the 10 facilities visited by blogger Nick Shirley were also visited by state officials at least once in the past six months, but that checks are ensuing again after the videos went viral, according to FOX-9.
Meanwhile, new attention to the childcare scandal appeared to lead the otherwise mundane Minnesota Department of Human Services Licensing Information Lookup website to crash and be down for several hours overnight.
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A FOX-9 reporter tweeted an image of the downed page on Monday, and Fox News Digital encountered the same message Tuesday morning. However, by midday Tuesday, the site appeared to have regained connectivity.
Much of the scrutiny focused on License No. 1087038, tied to the Quality Learning Center – whose sign misspells its name as “Quality Learing Center” – which reportedly received $1.9 million in state funding in fiscal year 2025.
Calls and emails to multiple offices within the Department of Human Services (MNDHS) and DCYF for confirmation on whether the center is continuing to receive funding went unanswered Tuesday.
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Fox News Digital reached out to MNDHS’ licensing division, “provider hub,” Brown’s office, and MNDHS’ communications office. A person who picked up at the main switchboard directed Fox News Digital to an extension for a Brown staffer as well as another extension that also went to a mailbox. None of the messages were returned by deadline.
The Quality Learning Center had alerted officials on December 19 that it would be closing, according to FOX-9, but by Monday afternoon, officials told the outlet the center had decided to remain open.
While officials did not return requests for confirmation to Fox News Digital, FOX-9 reported that Brown had said none of those centers featured in Shirley’s videos – including the Quality Learning Center – had their state funding paused due to fraud concerns.
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Two of the featured centers, however, were closed, according to the state – though one was the Quality Learning Center, which reportedly is continuing to operate under the previously cited reports.
A call to the number listed in official documents for the Quality Learning Center could not be connected, but the center’s manager publicly said Monday that he never stopped operating.
Manager Ibrahim Ali spoke Monday outside the center, saying that “a lot of the journalism that has been going on in the last couple of days has been really dishonest.”
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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has said: “Minnesota is a prosperous state, a well-run state.” (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)
Appearing to reference the viral video, Ali said the visit appeared to occur outside of normal business hours and wrongly claimed the center is permanently closed.
“Are you trying to record that we’re doing fraud, or are you trying to put the Somali name in that fraud? That is what really hurt us in the last couple days,” Ali said, adding that Quality Learning Center has been open for eight and a half years and has not closed “once” during that time period.
As for the spelling error, he said a vendor “messed up” their sign and is replacing or correcting it, predicting the situation will be assuaged by the end of the week.
In a video posted by Fox News Digital on Monday, Brown told people at a cyber-meeting that her department “care[s] about making sure that every dollar of the child care assistance program and other programs is going where it’s supposed to be going and used as intended.”
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“Several of these centers have been evaluated for program integrity in the past several years,” she said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for additional comment.
Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
