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On March 17, 2026, the Office of Childhood (OOC) received an allegation that: On March 13, 2026, at approximately 2:40 p.m., the center manager was informed by staff that Child A (4-years-old), was left outside without supervision. After conducting an investigation, Compliance Inspector (CI) Michelle Honea has found this allegation to be substantiated based on the following evidence:
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."
On March 19, 2026, Compliance Inspector (CI) Michelle Honea conducted an unannounced inspection to the facility and interviewed director Susan Boss and teacher Ester Davis.
Susan stated that the incident happened on March 13, 2026, around 2:16 p.m. Teacher Sativa Cotten was outside with the children. She came in and had snack with her class not realizing that Child A (4-years-old), had been left outside. Child A was outside for twenty minutes without supervision. Parent A was notified of the situation, and two teachers were terminated after an internal investigation. Changes have been made, and all staff will be retrained on supervision of children and transitions and having two teachers outside at all times.
CI Honea interviewed teacher Ester stated that she was inside cleaning while Sativa had the class outside but she knew there was eleven children in the class that day. She then only counted ten children when they came inside. Child A was found outside the door, and he was okay. No one knew how long Child A had been outside. She went and told Director Susan about what happened.
On March 19, 2026, CI Honea reviewed video footage from March 13, 2026, the first video shows ten children lining up on the sidewalk at 2:15 p.m. and teacher Sativa Cotton counting the children. The first video shows Child A falling behind the other children walking up the sidewalk. The beginning of the second video shows the children going inside the building and the door closing before Child A gets to the door. The video shows Child A walking back and forth on the sidewalk, stopping to touch the door, looking up at the camera, and just standing around by the door. The video shows that Child A did not appear to be upset and was not crying. The video shows the door opened at 2:39 p.m. and Child A went inside. Child A was outside alone for approximately twenty-four minutes without supervision. CI Honea reviewed documentation that was created for staff on classroom supervision.
On April 2, 2026, Compliance Inspector (CI) Michelle Honea, conducted a phone interview with Sativa Cotton who stated that she was terminated after this happened at the daycare. She counted the children while they were lining up but did not count once they went inside. She did not realize Child A was not inside until it was time to go back outside. Child A was found outside the classroom door outside. She felt so bad that this happened, and it did not occur to her to look back and make sure no child was still outside because she was used to another teacher being outside with her to check that all the children were accounted for.
On April 3, 2026, Compliance Inspector (CI) Michelle Honea conducted a phone interview with Parent A who stated that he was notified when the incident happened at the daycare with Child A being left outside and that the director did apologize for what happen stating it would not happen again. He does not have any other concerns.
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