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On June 1, 2026, the Office of Childhood (OOC) received an allegation that Child A (4-years-old) disclosed that her teacher forgot her outside at All Aboard Learning Center. After conducting an investigation, Compliance Inspector (CI) Patrick O'Malley 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 June 2, 2026, CI O'Malley conducted an interview with Parent A (parent of Child A), who stated that on Thursday, May 28, 2026, Child A reported that something bad had happened at daycare that day. When she asked Child A what had happened, Child A reported that she had been left outside. Child A denied being injured but reported she played on the swings and the tunnel. On May 29, 2026, Parent A asked staff Jillian Davis about what Child A had reported the previous evening. Jillian said that she would look into it and give Parent A a call. Director Terry Switzer called Parent A at about noon on May 29, 2026; Terry reported that Child A had been left outside on the playground for about a half-hour the previous afternoon. Terry also reported that staff Mia Case had been Child A's teacher that afternoon. Child A had not returned to the facility since May 29, 2026, and Parent A was not certain if Child A would be returning. Parent A denied that Child A reported being left outside twice.
CI O'Malley attempted to interview Child A (4-years-old), but she did not respond to any questions.
On June 2, 2026, CI O'Malley conducted an unannounced inspection of the facility. CI O'Malley observed video footage of the facility's outside playground. The video shows several children and two women occupying the playground on May 28, 2026. At 5:00 p.m., the children line up between the two women and walk inside the building; Child A is seen standing to the left of frame next to a swing set. Child A plays on the swings for several minutes then walks to a large plastic tunnel. At 5:22 p.m., Child A exits the tunnel and walks to an exterior door and knocks. The door opens at 5:23 p.m. and Child A walks inside.
On June 2, 2026, CI O'Malley conducted interviews with director Terry Switzer and staff Jillian Davis. Terry stated that on May 29, 2026, Parent A reported that Child A had spoken about being left outside the previous day. Terry reviewed footage of the playground from the previous day and discovered that Child A had been left alone on the playground from 5:00 p.m. until 5:23 p.m. The footage did not contain audio, but it appeared that Child A did not line up with the rest of her class when called. Child A spent twenty-three minutes playing on swings and in a plastic tunnel, she then knocked on her classroom's exterior door. Child A was not injured and did not appear upset; Child A appeared to either not hear or ignore the call to line up and then played outside until she got bored. Two preschool classes were outside at the same time; Mia and Jillian had been the teachers outside with them. Terry spoke to Mia, who admitted that Child A had knocked on the classroom's exterior door after being left outside for approximately twenty minutes. Mia was terminated for not reporting the incident to administration. Terry prepared an incident report and contacted Parent A to let her know Child A's story was correct. Child A had not returned to the facility since she confirmed the incident to Parent A. The staff had been trained on name-to-face checks whenever a class moved from the classroom to the playground or vice versa.
Staff Jillian Davis stated that she and Mia both worked at the facility on the afternoon of May 28, 2026. Jillian and Mia's classes were next to each other, separated by a small hallway. Each classroom had an exterior door that opened onto the shared outside playground. Jillian affirmed that she called both classes to line up at 5:23 p.m. Jillian led the classes inside to her classroom and Mia brought up the end of the line. Mia took her class through the hallway to her own classroom. Jillian did not recall how many children were in either class during the outside playtime. Jillian did not recall if Child A lined up or not.
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