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On June 16, 2026, the Office of Childhood (OOC) received a report alleging that Child A (3 years old) is coming home with various injuries, and the parent is not notified until the child comes home or is not notified at all. After conducting the 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 25-500.192(5)(A): In case of accident or injury to a child, the provider shall notify the parent(s) immediately. If the child requires emergency medical care, the provider shall follow the parent's(s') written instructions.
On June 22, 2026, CI Muckelrath conducted an unannounced inspection and interviewed Director Amanda Murphy. Amanda reported she was made aware of an incident that occurred with Child A in Former Teacher Karmen Mezzacapa's room that was not reported to Parent A. She became aware of this when Parent A messaged her to ask why she was not notified of the incident leading to a mark on Child A's arm.
On July 10, 2026, CI Muckelrath interviewed Parent A (Parent of Child A), who reported Child A came home with a mark on his arm that she was not notified about.
On June 22, 2026, CI Muckelrath conducted an unannounced walkthrough and observed the messages between Parent A to Former Teacher Karmen Mezzacapa and Director Amanda Murphy on June 16, 2026, regarding the marks on Child A's arm. Director Amanda Murphy apologized for not informing Parent A of the incident, explaining she told Former Teacher Karmen Mezzacapa that she would review the camera footage to understand how the incident happened. Former Teacher Karmen Mezzacapa explained to Parent A how the incident occurred and that she did not complete the incident report in a timely manner because she did not know what happened.
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