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On October 3, 2025, the Office of Childhood received an allegation that on October 2, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. there was no teacher present in a classroom during naptime with sixteen 2-year-olds for 4 to 5 minutes. The teacher stated that they went to use the bathroom and the director watched the children through the cameras in the office. After completing an investigation, Compliance Inspector (CI) Jackie Ruth found this allegation to be substantiated based on the following rule violations
5 CSR 25-500.182(1)(A)5 which states: "A caregiver shall remain in the room with preschool and school-age children while they are napping or sleeping and shall be able to see and hear them if they have difficulty during napping or when they awaken."
On October 8, 2025, Compliance Inspector (CI) Jackie Ruth conducted an unannounced inspection of the facility and held in person interviews with the director, Elizabeth Boedeker and the assistant director, Kim Smith. They both stated that there is a rule that says they do not have to maintain ratio during naptime and they can see all the classrooms on the camera in the office. The teacher left the room to go to the closet and get diapers to restock the classroom. She was the only one in the room because the other teacher was on break and it was naptime.
On October 8, 2025, CI Ruth observed a video recording of the 2-year-old classroom during the nap period on October 2, 2025. Two doors on the left of the room are observed to be propped open and two doors on the right of the classroom are closed. Six children were observed to be awake and seven children are asleep. There is one teacher present in the room and at time stamp 14:34:15, the teacher exits the room through a door to the hallway and closes the door behind her. Through the window of the door, CI Ruth observed her open the bathroom door and turn on the light. Upon the teachers exit, Child A is observed following her to the door and then turning around to begin to play under a table. Two other children join in crawling under the table repeatedly. Three other children are observed to being playing in the kids kitchen area. Parent A arrived at time stamp 14:36:45 and Child A runs to her. Parent A looks around the room and then looks out the window of the door that the teacher left from, and does not see anyone. Parent A waits in the classroom until the teacher returns at time stamp 14:37:52. Parent A is observed talking to the teacher before leaving with Child A. According to the time stamps, there was no teacher present in the room for a total of three minutes and 37 seconds.
On October 14, 2025, Compliance Inspector (CI) Jackie Ruth conducted an interview via phone with Parent A. She stated that on October 2, 2025, she arrived to pick up Child A during naptime and there was no teacher in the room for about four to five minutes. The teacher said she had been in the bathroom and there was a new rule that said they did not have to be in ratio in the classroom during naptime. She stated that this was not the first incident when she came to pick up and there was no teacher present in the classroom. That incident was at the very end of naptime and the teacher told her she was getting diapers from the closet outside of the room. That time was one to two minutes. They sent a message on the parent communication app stating that they prefer that children are not picked up between 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. because of the other children sleeping. Child A no longer attends the facility.
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