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Compliance Inspector (CI) Jessica Graham investigated the allegation that on December 17, 2025, at approximately 10:50 a.m., Child A (3-years-old) eloped from the facility. Ms. Cheyenne was on the playground, started taking the children inside, and realized that the upper gate was open, and Child A was missing. Child A was seen by a passersby running down State Road B and Column Drive and was found running at the bottom of the hill. This allegation is substantiated based on the following rule violation.
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 25-500.182(1)(A)1. which states: "Caregivers shall not leave any child without competent supervision."
On December 22, 2025 Jessica Graham reviewed a statement of events from Cheyenne Davis and Kate Badders, caregivers. The statement read as follows:
Ms. Cheyenne and her class of 7 children, age 3 and 4, were outside. Recess was over and it was time for the class to go in. The class was coming in about 10:50am and to while walking up the stairs another child didn't want to come inside so Ms. Cheyenne went to help the child up the stairs. Ms. Cheyenne walked back down the stairs to grab the outside bag, clipboard, and classroom phone. Ms. Cheyenne then walked back up the stairs and picked up the other child that didn't want to come inside to help them inside the class. When Ms. Cheyenne turned around to open the door to let the kids inside and as she counted them, she noticed the upper gate was open and that she only had 6 children. She realized Child A, dob 08/01/2022, was missing and began yelling for help. She asked Ms. Amy to check the playground, and Amy checked the playground looking under all the equipment and checking to see if the gate at the bottom of the playground still had the carabiner attached to the latch. Ms. Cheyenne asked Ms. Kate to look inside the building. Ms. Kate looked around the inside of the building and didn't see Child A. Ms. Kate went to the playground checking that he wasn't outside, she went outside the front door about 10:54am. A man was outside saying he saw a child running down the side road to the Raintree subdivision. Ms. Kate and Ms. Haylee started running to find Child A. Ms. Kate ran down towards Raintree subdivision and Haylee ran to check Hwy B. As. Ms. Kate was running toward the Raintree gate, the man that said he saw Child A running offered to let Ms. Kate ride in the bed of his truck to find Child A quicker. Ms. Kate and the man stopped at the gate where there was another man working on the Raintree gate. The worker said he saw Child A running down Column Dr. Ms. Kate and the man with the truck ran down Column Dr. to find Child A while Ms. Kate was yelling his name. Ms. Kate and the man found Child A towards the bottom of the hill where another person had stopped Child A from running. Ms. Kate picked up Child A and noticed he had a carabiner in his hands. Ms. Kate carried Child A till she met back up with Ms. Haylee at the entrance of Raintree. Ms. Haylee took Child A back to the center and put him in his classroom. Since his classroom has a door that leads outside, we moved Child A to a classroom with one door exit for safety reasons. Ms. Kate called Parent A about 11:11am to notify her about the incident and that Child A was safe. Ms. Kate asked Parent A to please pick up Child A for the rest of the day for safety purposes. Parent A arrived at the center about 12:08pm. Parent A and Ms. Kate went to the playground gate where Child A got out. Parent A stated that Child A knows how to use carabiners and the type of latch the gate is secured with. Parent A stated that they use the exact ones at home that the center uses. Parent A also stated that Child A has done similar things at home. While Parent A and Ms. Kate were outside talking, a police officer pulled into the parking lot and asked about the situation. Ms. Kate introduces Parent A who was next to her. The officer asked if everything was ok and Parent A said yes. The police officer said he was finished here and told Ms. Kate and Parent A to have a great rest of their day. Ms. Kate talked to Parent A and told her that she will be getting different carabiners or locks for all the center playground gates as well as an entry gate for the front, so children are more secure. Moving forward we know Child A is a elopement risk. We plan to have a teacher remain at the gate during outside time to prevent this from happening again. We have purchased and installed threaded carabiner clips for the playground gates for added safety.
Ms. Kate
Ms. Cheyenne
On December 22, 2025, director Tiffany Ramsey said she was not working at the center on December 17, 2025, when the incident occurred. She arrived after Kate Badders, caregiver, had brought Child A back. She spoke with the caregivers and reviewed video footage. She could see Child A leave through the gate.
On December 23, 2025, caregiver Cheyenne Davis said she was in charge of Child A on December 17, 2025. She was lining her class up to go inside and had to go to the bottom of the stairs to get a child that would not line up. When she got back up to the platform, she turned around and she thinks that may have been when Child A slipped out of the gate. She did not see him leave and neither did the other caregiver that was on the playground with her class. She counted her children and noticed that she only had six children instead of seven. She called inside to Kate, caregiver, asking if Child A was inside.
Kate Badders, caregiver, said that she was the designated person in charge on December 17, 2025. She was told that Child A was missing and her and caregiver Haylee went looking through the building him. A man from across the street came and said that he saw a child running towards the subdivision next to them so she ran over there. When she reached the gate of the subdivision, someone was there working and said they saw a child running down the hill. She ran after and saw that someone had stopped Child A. Child A was still trying to run towards his home in the subdivision so he had to carry him back to the center. Child A was unharmed and laughing when she got to him. Once back at the center she called Parent A to let her know what had happened.
On January 5, 2026, Parent A said she was told about the incident by the daycare. The gates at the center have the same locking system that they use at their house and Child A knows how to work them. When Child A was found he was halfway home. Child A had been seen by a manager working on a house in the subdivision and she called and reported this to the police. Kate told her the same story when she arrived at the center. Child A was safe and okay. She did review video footage and could see the gate open but Child A was not in view.
On January 5, 2026, CI Graham noted that the speed limit on Highway B, across from the daycare was 50MPH and a one lane road. A gas station was located across the highway from the daycare. The subdivision that Child A was found in is on the same side of the road as the daycare and had a speed limit of 25MPH.
On January 5, 2026, CI Graham inspected all the gates on the playground at the facility. All gates were closed, latched and had carabiners in place. The gate on the platform where Child A eloped from is a self closing gate.
Based on interviews it could not be determined how long Child A was away from the center.
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