R 400.1911 · R 400.1911 Care; supervision; children. (1) A licensee shall ensure appropriate care and supervision of children at all times.

On 04/26/2021, I spoke with the complainant by telephone. He/she stated that he/she has observed Ms. Swadling teach Child A (3 years) how to climb over a baby gate located at the doorway to the basement child care area bathroom. Ms. Swadling teaches children to climb the gate so that she does not have to assist with them with entering the bathroom because it's a hassle and Ms. Swaddling is not always in the basement child care area. She is sometimes upstairs or in the basement office with her back turned and not attending to the children. The complaint has observed multiple incidents when children were walking around in the basement child care area unattended while Ms. Swaddling was upstairs or in the basement office. Child A was pinched on the leg by the baby gate as a result of needing to climb the gate to use the bathroom, but Child A did not fall. On 04/28/2021, I conducted an on-site inspection at Ms. Swadling's child care home. Ms. Swadling was present with child care staff member Ms. Nicole Burwell. I reviewed the allegations with Ms. Swadling. We reviewed and discussed the baby gate located at the bathroom doorway. The gate was made of a light grey plastic and was pressure mounted in a grove that was created by additional pieces of wood that had been added to the door jam in the doorway of the bathroom. There were diamond and triangular shaped cut outs in the hard plastic of the body sections of the gate. Ms. Swaddling explained that the gate was used to keep toddlers from entering the bathroom because there was no door. The bathroom is constructed in such a way that the toilet is not immediately visible from the doorway and the doorway contains no door. Ms. Swadling explained that she stands at the gate and sort of "boosts" older children over the gate when they get too heavy to lift easily. The children would sometimes use their toes to get a footing in the cut-out openings of the gate before she boosts them over. It seemed okay to let the children partially climb the gate in this way and then boost them over the gate, if they were too big or too heavy to lift over the gate. She is not aware of any child ever getting hurt form this. 3 Ms. Swadling and I discussed and agreed that it is reasonable to conclude that gates are not intended to be climbed and all equipment must be used according to the manufacturer's directions and be free of hazards. We agree that allowing the children to climb the gate, even under supervision, was not using the gate appropriately and an alternate option is needed to ensure the safety of the children while allowing Ms. Swadling to keep the bathroom inaccessible to very young children. Ms. Swadling and I discussed installing a half door or the type of gate that swings so that children could walk safely in and out of the bathroom without climbing or needing to be lifted. We also discussed that it is not safe for child care staff members to step over gates due to the risk of falling on children and/or injuring themselves. Ms. Swadling stated that she may occasionally run upstairs from the basement child care area very briefly to get toilet paper or something similar, but she has no reason to linger upstairs and she does not linger. She typically works with another child care staff member, so the children are not unsupervised even if she briefly goes upstairs. Even if she went upstairs when she worked alone, it would be very brief and supervision would not be compromised. Ms. Swadling may be in her office at times, but her office is right near the child care area in the basement and she can see out of her office and easily observe children in care. On 05/17/2021, Ms. Swadling emailed me and included a photo of a walk-through metal gate and indicated that she has installed the gate at the opening of the bathroom door. On 05/27/2021, I spoke with child care staff member Ms. Nicole Burwell. Ms. Burwell stated that she does not know a lot about the operations of Ms. Swadling's child care home befo

Open Not marked corrected in the state record

Category: supervision. Open / not marked corrected.