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On January 26, 2026, the Office of Childhood received allegations that on the morning of Friday, January 23, 2026, Child A (11-months-old), fell off of a changing table and hit her head. An incident report from the facility stated that a teacher named Becky had Child A on a changing table when someone walked into the room and Becky turned her body to say, "hi," and Child A fell off the changing table and had a mark above her right eye on her forehead. After completing an investigation, Compliance Inspector (CI) Jackie Ruth, found these allegations to be substantiated based on the following rule violations:
5 CSR 25-500.182(1)(E)3. which states, "The child shall not be left unattended at any time while on the diapering table."
On January 28, 2026, CI Ruth conducted an unannounced inspection of the facility and held in person interviews with the director, Kristin Skebo, and caregivers, Beth Twiehaus, Becky Block, Dawn Abel, and Jen Parsons. All parties acknowledged that this incident happened. Becky stated that she took her hand off Child A while she was on the changing table, and she turned to look at and greet Parent B and Child B when they entered the room. Becky stated that this was an accident, the first time that an incident like this has happened, and no other children have ever sustained injuries in her care.
Kristin stated that they notified the parents right away and took photos of the injury sustained to Child A's forehead. Parent A picked up Child A shortly after they were notified and took her to urgent care. She said they offered options for Child A's care moving forward and are retraining the staff on diaper change table safety and procedures. Child A returned to the facility for one day following the incident, but was removed from care after that. Kristin said that when she requested the video footage from the owner, Chad Boewer, he replied via email that the camera was not recording and sent a photo attachment in the email showing this.
Dawn and Jen stated no concerns involving Becky and were unaware of any other incidents where a child was hurt in her care.
On January 28, 2026, CI Ruth conducted an unannounced inspection of the facility and observed multiple documents pertaining to the incident. CI Ruth observed the incident report written by Becky on January 23, 2026 and says the incident occurred at 9:00 a.m. It reads, "While cleaning [Child A] up from breakfast, she was placed on the changing table. After being wiped off, she rolled off the table." It says notice was provided to the parent via a phone call, by Kristin, at 9:00 a.m. CI Ruth observed four photos showing a raised, circular mark on the left side of Child A's forehead, above her eyebrow, that was red with a bruise forming in the middle. CI Ruth observed an email from the owner, Chad Boewer, explaining that the video footage was not recorded because there must have been an issue with the hard drive, and this happened once before. CI Ruth observed a photo attached to this email of the camera system. It displays the date of January 23, 2026, and a timestamp of 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. with a prompt on the screen that says, "No record." CI Ruth observed two emails from Kristin to Parent A. One clarifying the details that led to the incident, and one providing options for Child A's care moving forward. CI Ruth observed an email from Kristin to the infant and toddler staff members asking that they read an article and watch a video on changing table safety, and reminding them to always keep a hand on a child who is on the diapering table.
On February 3, 2026, CI Ruth observed a video that was recorded on January 23, 2026, at 9:15 a.m. and shows Child A playing with staff member, Becky Block. Child A is observed to be alert and smiling in the video. The video quality is low and blurry, so CI Ruth was unable observe the mark on Child A's forehead in the footage.
On January 29, 2026, CI Ruth conducted an interview via phone with Parent A (parent of Child A). Parent A stated that he does not feel the situation was handled appropriately and there has been a breach of trust with the facility due to the lack of camera footage. He does not understand why Child A was put on the diaper table to be cleaned up after breakfast when she was sitting securely in a highchair and could have been wiped off there. He stated that the staff wrote an incident report, but it was vague, and he had not yet heard from the owners, only the director. Child A is no longer attending the facility.
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