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On July 14, 2025, the Office of Childhood (OOC) received an allegation of an incident occurred in May of 2025 at the facility. Child A (2-years-old) was left unsupervised on the playground for 15 minutes. The facility contacted Parent A about the incident immediately. Parent A now works at the facility and has further information on the incident alleging that Child A was left unsupervised for 1.5 hours on the playground instead of for only 15 minutes. On July 15, 2025, Compliance Inspector (CI) Christy Hughes conducted an unannounced inspection of the facility and found the allegations to be substantiated based on the following information.
5 CSR 25-500.182(1)(A)1. which states: "Caregivers shall not leave any child without competent supervision."
AND
5 CSR 25-500.182(1)(A)3. which states: "Caregivers shall provide frequent, direct contact so children are not left unobserved on the premises."
AND
5 CSR 25-500.112(1) which states: "Staff/child ratios shall be maintained at all times."
AND
5 CSR 25-500.112(1)G. which states: "During outdoor play, staff/child ratios may be one and one-half (1 1/2) times the indoor staff/child ratios if children two (2) years of age or younger are not present in the outdoor play space. The required indoor staff/child ratios shall be maintained on the premises at all times."
On July 15, 2025, CI Hughes conducted in person interviews with director Tiffany Serralta and caregivers Himani Gupta and Judy May Bujnak "Mik".
Tiffany stated that she was gone for the day when Child A was left outside on May 13, 2025. She was told it was for 10 minutes. The center no longer had the video footage, and she had no documentation of the footage with a timeline. She spoke with the staff member as well as Parent A about the situation. The staff member was required to take some DESE trainings and was retrained on the centers name to face policy. Marcella was the afternoon supervisor at the time.
Himani stated that she is in Child A's class a lot but was pulled into a younger classroom on the afternoon of the incident and she heard that "Mik" found Child A outside.
Judy May Bujnak "Mik" stated that her classroom was always combined with another class while out on the playground so the teacher could go home. She would have 17 to 18, 2-year-old to 3-year-old children by herself when combined and that was a lot of kids to keep track of. This happened daily but it is no longer happening after she reported it to Tiffany. They came off the playground at around 4:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Parent A picked up at 4:30 p.m. When she saw Parent A it triggered her that she was missing Child A. She looked out on the playground and saw Child A. Child A was not crying or upset. She brought her into Parent A.
On July 15, 2025, CI Hughes conducted an in-person interview with Parent A (parent of Child A and a caregiver at the facility) and Child A. Parent A stated that she came to pick up her daughter at 5:38 p.m. on May 13, 2025, and when she walked in, Child A's teacher noticed that Child A was missing. Parent A saw Child A out on the playground and when Child A came in, she was upset and red faced. She brought it to Marcella's attention. Tiffany told her that the timeframe was 10 to 15 minutes. She later found out that Child A was outside for a longer period. Possibly over an hour. Child A was unable to provide any relevant information.
On July 15, 2025, Compliance Inspector (CI) Christy Hughes observed attendance records showing that Child A was picked up from the center on May 13, 2025, the day of the incident, at 5:38 p.m. CI Hughes observed an incident report that had the time of 5:00 p.m. on May 13, 2025 that Child A was left outside. Caregiver Faith Gorrell clocked out at 5:05 p.m. after giving her class to Mik who was still outside with the children including Child A. CI Hughes observed that the weather on May 13, 2025, the day of the incident, the high was 82 degrees Fahrenheit. CI Hughes was unable to determine exactly how long Child A was outside alone but it appears it was from approximately 5:05 p.m. to approximately 5:38 p.m.
On July 31, 2025, CI Hughes conducted a re-interview via phone with caregiver Judy May Bujnak "Mik." Mik stated that she thought CI Hughes was previously asking what time Child A normally got pick up when she responded 4:30 p.m. She thought CI Hughes was previously asking what time they normally come in when she responded 4:15 to 4:30 p.m. She told CI Hughes they did not come in from outside till 5:00 or 5:15 p.m. on that day. She had too many children, and she did not have time to walk around the playground to check that she had all of them.
On July 31, 2025, CI Hughes conducted an interview via phone with Marcella Lot. Marcella stated that Parent A came in to pick up Child A. As they were leaving Parent A told her that Child A was left outside, and Mik did not realize she was gone until she saw Parent A walk in. She reported it to her supervisor, Tiffany. Tiffany told her the next day that she reviewed the video footage, and that Child A had been outside by herself for an hour. She stated that Tiffany told the staff member Mik how to write up the incident report and that it was not accurate.
On August 1, 2025, CI Hughes conducted a re-interview via phone with director Tiffany Serralta. Tiffany stated that she did view the video, and she did not save the video. She does not remember the exact timestamps. On the video both Parent A and Mik walked out to the playground to get Child A. She was not able to see the face of Child A to know if she was upset or not. She went back and looked at timecards and the other teacher clocked out at 5:05 p.m. The other teacher had dropped off her class to Mik on the playground. She did not tell the staff member that wrote up the incident report how to write it.
On September 17, 2025, Compliance Inspector (CI) Christy Hughes conducted a re-interview via phone with director Tiffany Seralta and caregiver Faith Gorrell. Tiffany stated that caregiver Faith Gorrell took her children out to the playground to "Mik" before clocking out at 5:05 p.m. She stated that Parent A did not sign the incident report for 14 days because she wanted the amount of time of 15 minutes added to it. Tiffany stated that she does not know why the incident report was written for 5:00 p.m. No one was able to give her an answer about that.
Faith stated that she worked with the 3-year-olds to 5-year-olds. She was off work everyday at 5:00 p.m. She always took her children to "Mik" when it was time to leave. Sometimes she dropped them off outside and sometimes she dropped them off inside. "Mik" was a great teacher but sometimes when she had to leave and it left her out of ratio. The day Child A was left outside, she did drop her children off to her outside.
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