Adrian Head Start at Prairie

R 400.8125 · R 400.8125 Staff; volunteer; requirements. (1) All staff and volunteers shall provide appropriate care and supervision of children at all times. ........................................ .............

On 3/16/22, I reviewed an incident report emailed to the department. According to the incident report, on 3/15/22 around 10:00 a.m. while engaged in outdoor play, Child A walked away from the play area and walked over to the storm drain. Ms. McCarbery, Ms. Friess, and Ms. Katherine Miller were the child care staff members present working the classroom at the time of the incident. Ms. McCarbery was going to walk back into the classroom to get sidewalk chalk to use as a motivator to try and entice Child A back into the play area. Child A ran into the nearby parking lot near a storage container weaving through parked cars, then proceeded to a muddy field located adjacent to the school playground. Child care staff members Ms. Julie McCarbery and Ms. Kristen Friess followed Child A and had Child A within direct supervision at all times. Child A made it across the entire muddy field to a grassy area at which time both child care staff members Ms. McCarbery and Ms. Friess were able to get ahold of Child A, held her hands, and walk together back to the center with Child A positioned between the two child care staff members. Once everyone was back at the center safely, Ms. Friess notified the department and Child A's Guardian of the incident and that everyone was safe. Child A's Guardian said to tell Child A not to run away again. On 3/18/22, I conducted an unannounced onsite inspection to the center and separately interviewed Ms. Julie McCarbery and Ms. Kristen Friess, both who are child care staff members at the center. Both worked on 3/15/22 when Child A walked away from the outdoor play area. I informed the child care staff members of the allegations. Both child care staff members confirmed that on 3/15/22 around 9:45 a.m. Child A walked away from the outdoor play area while they were engaged in outdoor play activities. Both child care staff members said Child A walked away from the woodchip area toward the storm drain. Ms. McCarbery explained that the classroom rule is that all the child care children are to remain in the woodchip area 3 with the child care staff members. If they leave the woodchip area, they need to be accompanied by a child care staff member. As Child A walked away from the woodchip area, Ms. McCarbery reminded Child A of the rule. Ms. McCarbery went inside of the classroom to get some sidewalk chalk to try and entice Child A back to the play area. Ms. Friess and Ms. Miller remained with the children, and directly watched Child A. Ms. Friess told Child A to come back to the woodchip area and reminded Child A of the rule of not being outside the woodchip area unless you were with a child care staff member. Ms. Friess and Ms. McCarbery began to walk toward Child A. Ms. McCarbery snuck around the side of Child A placing herself by the parking lot as she knew Child A would begin to run if she saw the child care staff members coming after her. Ms. Friess remained on Child A's direct pathway continuing to talk to Child A trying to encourage her to come back to the play area. When Child A saw Ms. Friess, she ran toward the parking lot which is located adjacent to the outdoor play area. As the child care staff members got closer to Child A, she ran away, ran through the parking lot into an adjacent muddy tilled farm field. Ms. Friess went through the farm field in direct traverse as Child A. Ms. McCarbery positioned herself between a nearby roadway continuing to traverse toward Child A. Once they made it out of the muddy field onto a grassy area, both Ms. McCarbery and Ms. Friess were able to reach Child A, they told Child A that it was not safe for her to be walking around without a child care staff member present with her. Each child care staff member held Child A's hand and they walked back to the center with Child A being positioned between them. The child care staff members had continuous eye contact and were within a close proximity of Child A the entire time she walked away from the outdoor play area. Ms. McCarbe

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