• Violation

  R 400.1908 · R 400.1908 Capacity. (1) The licensee shall ensure that the actual number of unrelated children in care at any 1 time does not exceed the number of children for which the child care home is licensed, not more than 6 children for a family child care home and not more than 12 children for a group child care home. 4

  On 08/22/2023, I called the complaint source. She stated that the licensee billed for up to 23 children during the weeks of 05/22/2023-06/03/2023. On 08/24/2023, I conducted an unannounced inspection to the child care home. Licensee Kim Thomas was not onsite. CCSM 1 was present and allowed me to come inside. She stated that she has not worked there long and did not know where records were kept. There were no attendance sheets for the day but 4 children present. She stated that usually Ms. Thomas starts the attendance sheet for the day, but she did not do it this morning. I requested copies of past attendance records however, CCSM 1 could not produce any records. On 08/24/2023 I spoke to Ms. Thomas over the phone. She admitted to not staying on top of having parents sign children in and out each day. She will look for whatever attendance sheets she has and will email them to me. She stated that she has children enrolled in morning care which is usually from 6:00 a.m.- 2:20 p.m., afternoon care which ranges from around 3:00 p.m. –5:00 p.m. and then overnight care where children are dropped off around 10:00 p.m. and are usually picked up by 6:30 a.m. She stated that she doesn’t have more than seven children present at one time. If she does it would be just for a couple of minutes when waiting for children to get picked up. During the day, the children leave for school, so they are not present until they get pick up from the bus stop. She did admit she was confused on how to bill for overnight care. Consultation was provided on how to structure her attendance records and how to ensure that children’s pick up and drop off time does not overlap, so she does not have more than 7 children at one time. I informed her that she must pay close attention to how she is scheduling pick-ups and drop-offs. On 08/22/2023, I spoke to Trina Coolman, who is an MDE (Michigan Department of Education) Investigator. She provided me with a spreadsheet of billed hours for 05/21/2023-06/03/2023. The spreadsheet showed that for the first week, on 05/21/2023, the licensee was over capacity based on billing from 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. there were up to 14 children present. On 05/22/2023, the licensee was over capacity based on billing from 3:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m. where there were up to 10 children present. On 05/23/2023 and 05/24/2023, the licensee was over capacity based on billing from 2:30 p.m.-10:00 p.m. On 05/23/2023 the licensee has up to 10 children present and on 05/24/2023, the licensee had up to 11 children present. On 3 05/25/2023, the licensee was over capacity based on billing from 1:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m. where she had up to 12 children present. On 05/26/2023, 5:30 a.m.-10:00 p.m. and on 05/27/2023, the licensee was over capacity based on billing from 08:00 a.m.- 8:00 p.m. On 05/26/2023, the licensee had up to 14 children present and on 05/27/2023, the licensee had up to 15 children present. The second week showed a very similar record of being over capacity. On 09/12/2023, Ms. Thomas emailed me and said that she cannot locate any attendance records for the specific dates in question and did not have any current ones to share. On 09/15/2023, I spoke to Child A’s Mother, Child B Mother, and Child D’s Mother. I left a message for Child C’s Mother. Child A’s Mother shared that she usually drops off her two children around 5:30 a.m. and she picks them up around 8:00 p.m. She does not usually see any other children present. Ms. Thomas helps get the children to school during the day so they are only there for a few hours in the morning and then a few hours in the evening. She also stated that she has been with Ms. Thomas for a very long time and has no complaints. She has been a huge blessing for the family. Child B’s Mother stated that she drops her four children off for overnight care from around 10:00 p.m. – 6:00 a.m. She does usually see a few children present but no more than three additional children. When asked if she though there were more than seven c

Kim Thomas billed for up to 23 children at a time as a family home provider and her license capacity is 7 children.

Disposition: Substantiated