• Violation

  R 400.8140 · R 400.8140 Discipline. (2) All of the following means of punishment are prohibited: (h) Confining a child in an enclosed area, such as a closet, locked room, box, or similar enclosure. I

  On 03/03/2022 I spoke with Program Director Toni Tyson. She stated that she received the complaint via email from a parent last week while she was on vacation. She forwarded the email to owner, Nancy Schaefer to handle. Ms. Schaefer spoke to the parents and as far as she knows the conversation went well. However, she doesn't know the details of the conversation. Ms. Tyson stated the email was the first time that she has ever heard of staff isolating children as punishment, and she has never seen or heard of any staff doing this prior when she received the email. On 03/03/2022 I spoke with owner Nancy Schaefer regarding the complaint. She stated that the issue came to her attention on 03/01/2022 via email from the parents saying that their son told them that he was being left in the kitchen to calm down. When she spoke to parents, they identified Julie Shumard as the staff member who isolates children as punishment. She said when she spoke to Ms. Shumard about the parents' concerns, Ms. Shumard acknowledge that she put Child A (Male, age 3) in the kitchen as a form of punishment, but she stood in the doorway. Ms. Schaefer stated that she received a second email from another parent who stated that she asked her daughter what was going on in the kitchen at the child care and her daughter said, "you mean the crying kitchen," "I told Ms. Julie that I would be helpful, so I won't have to go". 2 I spoke with Child Care Staff Member Julie Shumard regarding the complaint. She stated she has taken Child A and Child B (Female, age 3), in the kitchen to talk to them. She was told by Ms. Tyson that she was allowed to take them in there to talk to them, to ask them to calm their body's down. She said she never leaves them in there. She just takes them aside in that room to talk to them and then they go back to their cot. She said she has nowhere else to talk to them because if she takes them in the hallway, she can't help the other staff member keep an eye on the other children. I asked her about the children calling it the "crying kitchen;" she said that she just heard about that. She said she knows Child B is usually crying when she goes in there and she cries while she is in there. I spoke with Child Care Staff Member Carol Walter regarding the incident. She denies that children are being isolated in the kitchen as a form of punishment. She said that they have a little girl in their classroom who becomes hysterical during naptime. The girl, Child B, has some issues that they can't handle. Ms. Shumard places Child B in the kitchen when she's having a tantrum. She only knows of three or four times that she put her in the kitchen. Ms. Shumard would put Child B in the kitchen after she has tried sitting with her, patting her on the back and asking her nicely to be quiet. She personally has never put Child B in the kitchen however, once she tried to bring her out of the kitchen, but Ms. Shumard got mad at her. She said that Ms. Shumard would put Child B in the kitchen and then she would go to the child size table nearby to do work, leaving child B in the kitchen to calm down. She stated would they try to calm Child B calm down, but they have 15 other children to focus on as well. Ms. Walter stated that she doesn't know of any other children that have been placed in the kitchen to calm down. I asked her about Child A being placed in the kitchen. She said she never seen it, if he did it must have happened when she wasn't there.

Staff are using isolation in the kitchen as a form of punishment for 3-year-olds.

Disposition: Substantiated