• Violation

  R 400.1913 · R 400.1913 Discipline; child handling. (3) Personnel shall not do any of the following: (d) Inflict mental or emotional stress, such as humiliating, shaming, threatening a child, or using derogatory remarks.

  The complainant stated that Billie Fish was overheard screaming, "I don't care, how many times do I have to tell you I don't care" at Child A 2 when he tried to ask her a question. At times Child A won't ask Ms. Fish for assistance because it appears that he is afraid of her. Child A's speech pathologist stated that she works with Child A online once a week while he is in the care of Billie Fish. When the speech pathologist has asked Child A to remove his mask while he is in a room alone with a closed door so that she can his mouth form words he has said that Ms. Fish told him to not to remove his mask. The speech pathologist explained to Child A that since he was alone in the room it would be alright to remove the mask. Child A still refused. The speech pathologist asked Child A to go and get Ms. Fish but Child A would not do it. The speech pathologist stated that she is not sure if Child A was afraid to go and get Ms. Fish. The speech pathologist has seen Ms. Fish interact with Child A before and it has seemed fine. Child A's Grandmother/Legal Guardian stated that she has never noticed Child A appear afraid of child care provider, Billie Fish. Child A has never mentioned to her that Ms. Fish has yelled at him. Child A does not want to leave her home at pick up time and he's happy to go every day. Child A has been enrolled in Ms. Fish's child care since he was between 6 and 9 months old. Ms. Fish lets her know every day at pick up if Child A had a good day or not. Some days she reports that Child A did not sit still during his online preschool class and sometimes she says he had a good day. Ms. Fish has said that Child A is doing well with his online classes. Ms. Fish stated that she did not scream at Child A. She stated that during Child A's preschool class he was told to find something in the home that started with a certain letter. Instead of trying to find something on his own Child A asked her to find something for him. Ms. Fish stated that she told Child A that she was not helping him and that he needed to find something himself. Another child started trying to give Child A the answer and Ms. Fish told her to stop and repeated that he needed to find something himself. Ms. Fish told the other child, "No, I don't care about that." She stated that she did not scream at anyone. Ms. Fish stated that Child A is not afraid of her at all. Sometimes he doesn't want to participate in his preschool class or his speech therapy which is also online. When he doesn't want to participate, he just won't do it and it's not because he's afraid of her. During the onsite inspection I observed Ms. Fish interacting with Child A and the other children in her care. Child A as well as the other children in care appeared to be very attached to Ms. Fish and were very comfortable with her. The children did not appear to be afraid of Ms. Fish. I attempted to contact the parents of Child B, Child C and Child D who are also enrolled in Ms. Fish's child care home, but I did not receive a return call. 3

Licensee, Billie Fish, was heard screaming at Child A.

Disposition: Substantiated