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On May 4, 2026, the Office of Childhood (OOC) received a report that today, around 8:00 a.m., Parent D saw two children in the tunnel: Child A (4 years old) and Child B (4 years old). Child A was lying face down with his pants pulled down, and he was bare bottomed, and Child B was straddling Child A on his legs/knees part of Child A's body. Parent D got the kids out of the tunnel. When asking Child A about it, he said that Child B plays with Child A like that a lot. Child A's dad arrived around 8:30 a.m. Daycare did not inform him what had happened, and Parent D had to tell him. Child B had done this to Child C a couple of months ago. He apparently was touching her on her butt outside, underneath the slide. After conducting an investigation, Compliance Inspector (CI) Rebecca Muckelrath finds the allegation to be substantiated. This conclusion is based on the following evidence of licensing rule violations which occurred at the facility:
5 CSR 25-500.182 (1)(A)3: Caregivers shall provide frequent, direct contact so children are not left unobserved on the premises.
On May 5, 2026, CI Muckelrath conducted an unannounced inspection and interviewed Parent D, who was also a teacher and Child A's sister, Director Elizabeth Woods, Teacher Gracie Nelson, Teacher Caleb Stephens, Managing Member Kerri Newton, Child B, Child C, and Child D. Parent D reported conducting a head count on the playground and realizing children were missing. When she looked, she found Child A with his pants down while Child B was standing over him in the tunnel on the playground. Elizabeth reported she was not present when the incident happened but was informed by Parent D of the incident. She spoke with Child B, who stated he was smelling Child A's butt. Gracie reported seeing Parent D on her phone regularly while watching children. Caleb reported he was not present when the incident happened but was told by Parent D about the incident. He has noticed Parent D on her phone a lot when she should be watching children. Kerri reported Parent D was written up in the past for being on her phone when she should have been watching children. Parent C had complained about Parent D being on her phone. Child D reported seeing Parent D standing by the window with a Snoopy on it and looking at her phone when they were outside.
On June 3, 2026, CI Muckelrath interviewed Teacher Joyce Turner. She was on the playground when the incident occurred. She reported Parent D was on her phone the morning of the incident while watching children on the playground.
On June 4, 2026, CI Muckelrath re-interviewed Parent D. She reported she was on the phone the morning of the incident while supervising children on the playground. When she got off the phone, she did a head count and that is when she noticed there were missing children.
On June 9, 2026, CI Muckelrath re-interviewed Director Elizabeth Woods, who reported Parent D had been in trouble before for being on her phone when she should have been supervising children.
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