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A state law prohibits most child molesters from living in "close proximity" to your kid's daycare, but KIRO Team 7 Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne discovered prison officials and some police are among the agencies that allow it anyway.

SEE MAPS Look at county maps showing locations of sex offenders and daycares Part II: System For Tracking Sex Offenders Fails Miserably

Here's what we did to prove it: We pumped addresses of Washington's registered sex offenders into one computer, addresses of all licensed daycares into another. Then, we merged the two on a map.

In green are the daycares; in red, the locations of sexual predators. The yellow circles are places where the two worlds collide, living less than 100 yards apart.

The state considers child molester and rapist Terry Paul Hove a sexual psychopath, but still placed him in a rental house two doors away from a licensed daycare. According to court records, Hove's roommates -- Charles McMullen and Everett Lee Manning -- are also convicted child molesters.

Our cameras captured an idea of what the offenders can see and hear every day from their back porch.

Wanda Cadwallader holds tight to her young son's hands as they walk past the "molester house" every day on the way to daycare.

"It's ludicrous! Sex offenders will prey on children, on certain age groups. Our children are innocent. Our children do not have the mechanisms or knowledge to protect themselves," Cadwallader said.

Child molester Jonathan Novy, child rapist Alfred Chirstenot, sex offender Reodrea Bradley -- the list goes on and on. Vulnerable kids (and their moms) living within line-sight of some of Washington's most-feared felons.

"It makes me feel angry that I wasn't aware, that no one let me be aware of what's going on," said Doris Patterson, a daycare operator.

Until we told her, Patterson had no idea police approved sex offender Ronald Polk to live across the street from her business.

"It makes me feel like I'm obligated to tell the parents. What's it going to do for my daycare? Continue to go on? Afraid to bring children over because he's so close?" she said.

Washington law prohibits all of this. It says when sex offenders "with minor victims" are released, the Department of Corrections "shall not approve a residence location … if the proposed residence is within close proximity to schools, child care centers."

What's that mean? To find out, we found the co-author of the law, former Washington Supreme Court Justice, and current gubernatorial candidate, Phil Talmadge.

"A city block is close proximity. It's very simple. That's what the legislature had in mind," Talmadge said.

Talmadge says the Department of Corrections is actually breaking the law, its own policy and the public's trust by allowing child sex offenders under its supervision to live next to daycares.

"What your story suggests is we are in a situation where we are putting this volatile mix of individuals with a history of offending in close proximity with people against whom they offend," Talmadge said. "It's asking for trouble."

But for daycare moms like Leah Gills, this law, even if it were enforced, has a gaping hole in it. According to court documents, the sex offender four doors down from her daycare raped an adult woman, not a child. The "proximity" law may not protect Gills' daycare.

"It's just scary. What if something went wrong?" Gills asked.

To get a broader picture of how often sex offenders and daycares cross paths, KIRO Team 7 Investigators used mapping software.

The computer drew an imaginary 300-foot circle -- a safety zone, so to speak -- around some 9,000 Washington daycares. Whenever any level of sex offender lived within that circle -- less than one city block -- we got a "hit." The statistics change daily because felons move, but our final tally: 605 sex offenders live close to daycares in Washington. [See more statistical information.]

"We have children and seniors here that are all vulnerable to predators," said Leslie Howle.

Howle is Director of the Intergenerational Children's Program on Queen Anne Hill. Nobody told her child molester Roger Rightmire lives in a condo across the street. Rightmire molested a 9-year-old boy while working as a school bus driver in Yakima.

"If someone has been convicted of child molestation -- I don't care if it's a level 1, 2, 3 -- we should know there is an individual in our neighborhood," Howle said.

The Department of Corrections at first told KIRO Team 7 Investigators that it wasn't responsible for monitoring most offenders and blamed the matter on local law enforcement.

After we provided the agency with numerous examples of convicted child predators under direct DOC supervision living next to daycares, the state sent us an e-mail, saying it would look into the matter.

Daycare moms like Wanda Cadwallader are offended by the state's silence and inaction.

"Take care of our children. They are a precious commodity. You don't get a second chance with them. Once they're screwed up, then we're working for crisis intervention," Cadwallader said.

Cadwallader has less to worry about now. KIRO Team 7 Investigators made a few calls and suddenly, the entire group of child molesters near her kids daycare moved.

Here are some more details discovered during our computer research:

162 sex offenders in King County live within one block of a daycare.

50 live near daycares in Pierce County.

We found 46 in Snohomish County.