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Daycare Accused Of Fraud After Investigation

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The use of More than $80,000 at the Academy for Kidz daycare in East Nashville has been called into question following a state investigation.

The children at Academy for Kidz in East Nashville qualify for free meals and are served breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack daily, federal grants help make that happen.

However, the money the company received in federal reimbursements between July, 2014 and September, 2015 is being investigated, all $83,881.

 "What we found was when they were filing these reimbursements they would often show that every kid was present for every meal, months on end," Tennessee Comptroller Spokesman John Dunn said. 

The daycare is licensed to care for 56 children. According to the company's paperwork, all 56 were in their care every day. However, an investigation found those documents were, at times, photocopied.

"We saw sheets that were for Sundays when the daycare wasn't even open. We also found that Academy for Kidz used white out on some of their forms to conceal the actual number of kids that were present, receiving food those days," Dunn explained. 

News Channel 5 visited Academy for Kidz and spoke to the owner who said she felt remorseful and has been working to make sure everything was corrected so that the daycare could move forward.

However, Academy for Kidz wasn't the only company being called into question. "We also question the oversight from the Department of Human Services," Dunn said. 

Forms for federal reimbursements are monitored by DHS. "What we found here is that the oversight DHS is providing is ineffective, inaccurate and frankly it's irresponsible to tax payer money which is used to feed these children," Dunn said. 

A spokesperson for DHS respectfully disagreed with the conclusion that the company was not providing proper oversight and said it had identified the issues noted by the Comptroller's report prior to the audit. 

The District Attorney's office will decide if charges will be filed.