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On June 3, 2026, the Office of Childhood received allegations that on June 03, 2026, caregivers Emily Churn and Cynthia Matlock left Child A (2-years-old), unattended outside from 8:50 a.m. to 8:52 a.m. Another employee that was outside with a different class found Child A and brought them back inside the facility. The caregivers did not realize Child A was missing from their class until 9:00 a.m. 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)(A)1. which states: "Caregivers shall not leave any child without competent supervision."
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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 4, 2026, CI Ruth conducted an unannounced inspection of the facility and held in person interviews with assistant co-directors, Cady Davis and Elise Bodine, and caregivers, Caitlyn Aurich, Cynthia Matlock, Emily Churn, and Lindsay Dollard.
Cady was not present when the incident took place, but she was told about it, watched video footage, and reported the event to the State. She said that Cynthia and Emily brought their children in from outside and they did not count the kids or notice Child A (age 2-years-old) was missing from their group. When Caitlyn was outside with her class, she noticed Child A alone on the playground next to her and brought Child A inside with her class. Child A was alone on the playground for two minutes before Caitlyn saw her. She was told that Cynthia and Emily did not notice that Child A was gone when Elise brought her back to the classroom. Cady stated that typically, teachers are supposed to group children along the fence and do a headcount before transitioning inside.
Elise stated that she got a call on the walkie-talkie from Caitlyn that she needed assistance and when she came into her class, she saw that Caitlyn had Child A, who was supposed to be with Emily and Cynthia. Caitlyn told her that she saw Child A by herself outside and brought her inside with her class. She was shocked and took Child A to the gross motor room to gather her thoughts before returning Child A to her class. Approximately ten minutes later she took Child A back to class, but during that time she never received an alert on the walkie-talkie that there was a child missing. When she came into the class with Child A, Emily and Cynthia said "welcome" to Child A as if she was just arriving. They both stated that they did not know that Child A was missing.
Caitlyn stated that she was preparing to take her class inside when she noticed Child A alone on the toddler playground next to hers. The playground she was on and the toddler playground are separated by a fence. She did not see anyone else and noticed the door to Child A's classroom was closed. She took Child A inside with her and radioed on the walkie-talkie that she needed assistance in her room immediately. Elise came in and asked if Cynthia and Emily had noticed that Child A was missing. Their classrooms are separated by large glass walls, and she noticed that Emily and Cynthia were serving breakfast and did not appear to notice that Child A was gone. Elise then took Child A upfront for ten minutes and Cynthia and Emily still did not notice she was missing from their group. She has seen that Cynthia can become overwhelmed and scatterbrained, but she did not have issues with supervision. She does have concerns with Emily involving supervision and believes she is not coachable. She said that Emily seems frustrated, never fills out their name-to-face sheets, skips head counts, and never knows how many children are in her class.
Cynthia stated that they were lining the children up to come inside. She counted everyone in line and Emily opened the door and then counted the children as they were going inside. She saw Child A in line when she counted, so she assumed that she must have run back to the playground. They have name-to-face sheets on their clipboard which is supposed to be part of the transition process, but sometimes they do the name-to-face sheets later, not in real time. In this situation, she and Emily did not complete the name-to-face sheet. She did not notice that Child A was missing from their group, but she knew Child A was there that day because she played with her outside. She thinks Child A was gone from the classroom for about one to two minutes.
While CI Ruth was present at the facility and conducting interviews, she was informed by Cady that Child B (2-years-old) was left unattended inside her classroom when the caregivers were transitioning and the class was going outside. The caregivers involved were Emily Churn and Lindsay Dollard, and Cynthia Matlock was already outside with some of the children from the class. Following this incident, CI Ruth continued conducting interviews with Cady Davis, Emily Churn, and Lindsay Dollard.
Cady stated that Child B is in the same classroom as Child A. Cynthia was outside with half the class and Emily was inside with the other children. Lindsay is the lead teacher and came in to take Emily's place. During the transition, Lindsay took the kids outside and Child B was left inside the classroom unattended. She got a call about a child that got hurt outside, so she went through the classroom to the playground and when she came back inside with the injured child, she noticed Child B in the room. She thinks Child B was unsupervised for approximately ten minutes, and stated that if she did not get that call for help, Child B may have gone unnoticed for much longer. She said the teachers are not implementing the name-to-face sheets correctly or in real time, and they are not doing a head count when transitioning. She is going to require that teachers count their kids every 30 minutes and check that they filled out the name-to-face sheet. Their administration team will do observations and random checks to make sure all teachers know how many children they have at all times.
In reference to the incident with Child A, Emily stated that she and Cynthia were getting ready to come inside and she tried to gather the kids into a line. She counted the kids as they were lining up, and said Child A must have slipped away without them noticing. She said that Cynthia counted the kids out loud and she counted the kids in her head. She said she came inside the room first and the kids followed, with Cynthia being the last to come in. She did not notice Child A was missing from the group until Elise brought her back into the classroom. She thinks Child A was outside for two minutes, but Elise kept her for around 10 minutes. They did not do the name-to-face sheet. She said she made a mistake and feels like she owned up to it. Emily said that she was unaware that Child B was left in the classroom. She was in the classroom cleaning up and having some kids use the restroom, and Cynthia had the rest of the class outside already. She stated that when Lindsay came in, the children were now in her care, so she left. She thinks there were five or six children inside the classroom with Lindsay, and she saw her lining up the children by the door to go outside.
Lindsay said she is Child A's main teacher and said that she was not there for this incident because she was out sick. She stated that Cynthia needs practice with counting the children when going inside or outside, and with making sure that all the kids are in her line. She said that Emily spends time talking to other teachers rather than supervising the children. Lindsay feels that she is always the one to do the headcounts and she has not seen Cynthia or Emily count the children when she works with them. Concerning the incident with Child B, Lindsay stated that she returned from her break to take over for Emily, who had four or five kids inside. Cynthia had taken the other half of the class outside and Emily was cleaning up the room. Emily did not tell her how many kids she had, and they did not do a headcount together when she took over. She took the kids outside to the playground and Child B was still inside. She typically does a headcount, but she made a mistake and feels terrible. She stated that it is not her intention to ever leave a child unattended.
While present at the facility on June 4, 2026, CI Ruth observed video footage of Child A's class coming in from outside on June 3, 2026. CI Ruth observed that at approximately 8:50 a.m., nine children entered the room first without an adult. Emily then entered approximately 16 seconds later, followed by a tenth child three seconds later. Cynthia entered the room approximately nine seconds after Emily, presumably leaving the door open as an eleventh child was observed to enter five seconds after her. The door to the playground was not visible in the frame. Approximately ten seconds after the last child came inside, CI Ruth observed Cynthia walk toward the playground door and presumably close it. CI Ruth observed Emily begin to prepare breakfast and the children sat down at the tables in the room. At 9:03:25 a.m., CI Ruth observed Elise enter the classroom with Child A.
CI Ruth observed footage of Caitlyn's classroom to conclude when Child A was brought back inside the facility. Beginning at 8:51:30 a.m., CI Ruth observed nine children enter the classroom before a caregiver. At 8:52:14, CI Ruth observed Elise enter the room, walk to the playground door, which was out of frame, and take Child A by the hand before walking her out of the class.
Between the two videos, CI Ruth observed that Cynthia was the last adult to enter her room at approximately 8:50:24 a.m., and Child A entered Caitlyn's classroom at approximately 8:52:26 a.m. CI Ruth determined that Child A was left outside unattended for approximately two minutes before she was found by Caitlyn. CI Ruth determined that approximately thirteen minutes passed before Elise returned Child A to her classroom and informed Emily and Cynthia of the situation.
CI Ruth observed video footage of Child B left unattended in a classroom on June 4, 2026. The footage began at 10:05:39 a.m., when Lindsay entered the classroom to take over for Emily. CI Ruth observed five children in the room, and Lindsay and Emily talked for a moment before Emily left the room. As Emily walked out, Lindsay walked toward the playground door and out of frame. CI Ruth observed four of the children follow Lindsay and Child B remained playing by a shelf in the center of the room. Child B was observed to be left alone in the room beginning at approximately 10:06:55 a.m. CI Ruth observed Child B looking around the room, but she remained by the shelf and played. At 10:13:15 a.m., CI Ruth observed Cady enter the room and walk directly to the playground door without noticing Child B. At 10:13:35 a.m. Cady came back inside from the playground with another child and noticed Child B. Cady then walked over to Child B, took her hand, and led her outside. CI Ruth observed that Child B was left without supervision for approximately six minutes and forty seconds.
On June 5, 2026, CI Ruth conducted an interview via phone with Parent A (parent of Child A). She said that the facility informed her of the incident and said they would be reporting it to the State. She knows Cynthia is one of Child A's teachers but does not know Emily, and she did not have concerns about any staff members before this incident. Child A seems excited to go to school and doesn't want to leave sometimes. There have been no incidents like this before, and she feels like they handled the situation appropriately. She stated that if this were to happen again, she would consider disenrolling Child A from the facility.
On June 8, 2026, CI Ruth conducted an interview via phone with Parent B (parent of Child B). She stated that this incident broke her trust with the facility and she disenrolled Child B. She watched video footage of the incident and said the facility explained that it occurred during the transition of a teacher returning from her break; but they did not really talk to her about how they would prevent this from happening again. Parent B stated that she has concerns about Emily but did not go into detail.
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