| Conclusion Summary |
|
On August 9, 2023, the Office of Childhood (OOC) received an allegation that on August 8, 2023, Child A (then 2-years-old) was left inside of the building for seven minutes and three seconds after the rest of the children in the room were taken outside. After conducting an investigation, Compliance Inspector (CI) Ian Fyfe has found this allegation to be substantiated based on the following evidence:
5 CSR 25-500.182(1)(A)1., which states that: "Caregivers shall not leave any child without competent adult supervision."
AND
5 CSR 25-500.182(1)(A)3., which states that: "Caregivers shall provide frequent, direct contact so children are not left unobserved on the premises."
On August 8, 2023, Center Manager Rebekah Duke emailed Compliance Inspector (CI) Cynthia Maddox to self-report the incident mentioned in the reported concerns.
On August 16, 2023, CI Fyfe conducted an unannounced inspection to Youth in Need and interviewed staff members Rebekah Duke, Haley Galvin, Cassandra Sherrell, and Sawyer Frye. Ms. Galvin and Ms. Sherrell were two of the staff members caring for Child A when the incident occurred. The third staff member, Clea Charleston, was not at the facility during the inspection. All staff members provided similar information when interviewed. On August 8, 2023, shortly after 1:30 PM, Ms. Galvin, Ms. Sherrell, and Ms. Charleston began transitioning the children in their classroom from inside to outside. Due to a combination of the staff members being distracted by arriving parents and intentionally skipping the required child counts, Child A was the only child left inside of the classroom after the class was fully transitioned outside. Ms. Sherrell grabbed the clipboard with the count sheet on her way out of the door. She was outside for about five minutes when she realized that they had left Child A inside. She immediately informed her co-teachers that Child A was inside and immediately went to go get him. Child A was unsupervised in the classroom for approximately seven minutes but did not appear to be upset or hurt when Ms. Sherrell went to retrieve him. Parent A (parent of Child A) was ultimately informed of the incident after she left the facility with Child A. The three staff members involved in the incident went on administrative leave by the facility, provided with a performance improvement plan, and were required to review the facility's policies on child counts. All staff members facility-wide are now required to conduct child counts every thirty minutes throughout the entire day.
Ms. Duke provided video footage of the incident to CI Fyfe; However, CI Fyfe was unable to successfully upload and view the footage. Despite not being able to view the footage, a detailed timeline of the incident is available in the accident report completed for this incident.
|