Freedom Early Learning Center

R 400.8112(1) · 1 LANDMARK BUILDING • 105 W. ALLEGAN STREET • LANSING, MICHIGAN 48933 Michigan.gov/MiLEAP R 400.8112(1) Children's records. (1) At the time of a child's initial attendance, a center shall obtain a child information card, using a form provided by the department or a comparable substitute, that is completed, signed and dated by the child's parent and updated as changes occur. The center shall keep current hard copies of the child information cards at the center. Bureau

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R 400.8380 · R 400.8380 Maintenance of premises. (1) The premises must be maintained in a clean and safe condition and must not pose a threat to health or safety. 4

On 08/11/2022 I spoke with Senior Environmental Health Specialist Andrew Priest from the Ottawa County Department of Public Health. He said that it appeared that the center has been working on renovations in a classroom without moving children out. The infant room had drywall recently installed but was not finished, with areas of flaking drywall and dust coming off it. Below is an excerpt, regarding the infant room 2 non compliance, from an Environmental Health Inspection Report he completed on 08/11/2022, in which he gave a C rating: Section 5 (non compliance): "Construction in facility while utilized, dry wall flakes on floor/unfinished. Paint chipping in rooms." Findings Section: "Premises not maintained clean/safe, new construction/walls unfinished." He was completing an Environmental Health Inspection on the whole building for renewal, so there were some other areas of non-compliance which did not pertain to this issue as well, and as thus are not noted here. On 08/16/2022 I completed an unannounced on-site inspection at the center. Program Director Alisha Rodriguez was out for the day, but Charles Gilfillan (Chairman of the board for the center) was present in the office answering phone calls. He stated he has been handling many of the facilities projects that the center is completing at this time, along with the center's maintenance person. The facility submitted several plan reviews to the Bureau recently. A Plan Review for work in the School Age classroom was approved with conditions on Tuesday, March 1, 2022. A Plan Review for the Toddler 1 and Toddler 2 classrooms was approved with conditions on Tuesday, March 1, 2022. The facility has not been doing work to the classrooms while children are in care, unless it is in a room where there are no children and children do not have access to the room. The majority of the time they do the renovation work in the evenings and over the weekends. Mr. Gilfillan said that they did some work recently in the infant room, and then forgot to move the ceiling tiles back into place when they were done, which is why some were missing. They put up the drywall and intend to complete it as soon as possible, but the maintenance person helping him became ill and has not been able to come in to help finish the project. I inspected the center. The Toddler room that is under construction is not accessible to children, as it has doors which are closed at all times and no children are in care in that room. The infant room did appear to be under construction, and there were infants in care in the room during my inspection. The wall between the napping room and the classroom was unfinished drywall from the floor to ceiling, with areas of peeling/flaking drywall and a small amount of drywall dust on the floor in the corner, which was accessible to children. There was a gap in the trim along the bottom of one section of the wall, and a gap between two sections of wall that had a piece of trim inserted to fill the gap, with masking tape covering the exposed corner. There were ceiling tiles missing in the classroom and in the napping room where infants were sleeping. On 08/16/2022 I spoke with Ms. Rodriguez on the phone. She said she had told the gentleman working on the infant room that the ceiling tiles needed to be put back and that the gap in the wall needed to be fixed. She is hoping that the drywall in the 3 classroom and napping room will be fixed and painted by the coming weekend. She also said that she will put a barrier gate up to block off the corner that has the gap and trim issue so that children cannot access it, until it can be fixed. A plan review was not submitted for the work in the infant room, because originally, they were only going to replace a top section of the wall that had some windows in it with drywall. However, when they took the windows out, they realized they had to rebuild the wall to make it more structurally sound, so they took down the entire wall and rebuilt it. She

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R 400.8510 · ............................................................................................................................................................................... R 400.8510 Plans and specifications; submission; approval; inspections. (2) Written approval shall be obtained from the department before initiating any construction. I

The center took down and re-built a wall in the infant room without first obtaining approval from the Bureau.

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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 07/08/2022 I received an email from Program Director Alisha Rodriguez stating, in part, the following: "We had an incident today with one of our children in our Early Preschool Classroom. One of our kiddos was on the teacher chair and was alternating between standing, sitting and leaning on the chair. He lost his balance on the chair and fell over the arm of the chair, hitting the back of his head on the handle of the cabinet next to the chair. Mom took him to Urgent Care and he required one staple to be put into a small gash on his head. When he fell, a staff member was vacuuming drowning out the noise of the fall. Staff didn't see the incident occur and he didn't cry for longer than 20 seconds, nor did he alert the staff in the room that he was hurt. Mom noticed blood in his hair at pick up and asked about it." Ms. Rodriguez sent an Incident report in the same email. 2 On 07/12/2022 I completed an unannounced on-site inspection at the center. Ms. Rodriguez said she thinks the incident was just "the perfect storm" of a lot of things happening at once in the classroom, as it occurred during a transition time for the teachers. She believes that was why no one saw the incident or noticed that the back of Child A's head was bleeding. One teacher was vacuuming the room, and the second teacher was walking around cleaning up. They stopped in the back of the room to debrief over the end of the day, because one of the teachers was leaving for the day, and Child A fell at that time. Neither of them saw him fall or heard his cry. A third teacher came in the room, saw Child A on the floor and she checked on him. He got up and ran off and "she thought he was ok." A few minutes later, they took the children outside for a popsicle and when they came back in, Child A's mother picked him up. When she was putting him in his car seat, she noticed that his head was bleeding and brought him back in to ask about it. Ms. Rodriguez stated, "It was dripping and bleeding. I think his hair was absorbing most of it." She said that Child A's mother "did wonder how no one noticed it", but that he didn't cry after the first 20 seconds, and there was no blood on his shirt. "He was acting normal and never approached a teacher." Child A's Mother took him to the doctor, and he got a staple put in. Ms. Rodriguez had video footage of the incident, which she showed to me. When the video starts, you see the children playing and picking up the classroom, with one teacher sitting on the floor (Marcella Bodbyl) and one vacuuming (Olivia Fredrick). Ms. Bodbyl gets up and begins to pick up the classroom, at minute 1:09 of the video, Child A climbs on an adult sized chair in the circle area. The chair is placed to the left of a cabinet, and there are two long handles on the cabinet. The child is seen alternating between sitting, standing and kneeling on the chair. Sometimes he twists around or turns to the side. It appears that twice while he is on the chair, Ms. Bodbyl looks directly at him, but she does not say anything to him. Ms. Fredrick continues to vacuum but does not look up. Both teachers meet in the back of the classroom and are talking, and at minute 2:24, Child A falls to the left off of the chair, hits his head on the cabinet doors and falls to the ground. In the video, you can hear a "thump" and then a cry or wail. He lays on the floor for several seconds, and you see a third teacher walk into the room (Brittany Boeskool) and over to him at minute 2:40. In the video you cannot hear or see him crying at that point. She leans over the cabinet, sees him on the ground and says something to him, and he rolls away from her, stands up and runs off at minute 2:46. When he runs off, he holds the back of his head across the room, and does not approach any child care staff members. Ms. Boeskool does not appear to watch him as he runs away holding his head. He stands in the back of the room for several seconds, touching his head and then leaning over a table of som

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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.

I conducted an unannounced onsite inspection on 05/27/2021. linterviewed program director, Chelsey Loper regarding the allegations. Ms. Loper stated that a former employee, Olivia Hook came to her with concerns about what 2 she was noticing in the classroom she was working in. She also stated that Ms. Hooks did not mention anything to her about infants sleeping in bibs or loose-fitting clothes. Ms. Looper denied that Ms. Hook mentioned to her that one of her concerns was unsupervised infants. Ms. Looper explained she is unaware of any children being left alone or unsupervised in a classroom. I interviewed Child Care Staff Member Presli Hugg. She stated that she is currently a child care staff member and has been employed at the center for a little under a year. Ms. Hugg stated that she has never left the infants alone. She said she would never think of doing that. She stated that the person who made this allegation is lying. I also interviewed Child Care Staff Member Kristin McLain. She stated she is currently employed as the lead caregiver in the infant room and has been employed at the center since February. She stated she has never known a caregiver to leave the room and leave an infant alone. As far as she knows no one does. On 06/08/2021, I spoke with the complainant. She stated she was not trained in infant safe sleep when she was hired and no one appears to be practicing it. She stated that she only worked mornings from 6am-9am on Tuesday, Wednesday and Fridays from April to May. She stated that Child Care Staff Members would leave infants in bouncers and the swings for their entire nap. However, she would move the infants she was named primary caregiver for and when she would try to move the other infants, the other staff members would say "no" they are going to wake up. She also stated that staff members would allow infants to sleep in bibs and loose- fitting cloths and allow them to have their blanket during nap time. She also stated that she brought concerns to the director regarding a situation of an infant that was briefly left in the room unattended for about 20 or 30 seconds while they transferred some of the infants from the infant 1 room to the infant 2 room. On 07/15/2021, Child A and Child B's Mother denied having any concerns regarding the care and supervision that the center is providing her children. On 07/27/2021, Child C's Mother stated that Child C (Male, age 8 months) has been attending the child care facility since April. She stated that she has only been in the facility a hand-full times because the center had a policy of not letting the parents inside during COVID. She said she only recently two weeks ago had a tour of the facility. However, the few times that she has been in the facility she never seen any children alone. Child D and Child E's Mother stated that Child D (Female, age 3 has been 1/2) attending the facility for over 3 years and Child E (Male, age 7 months) has been 3 attending the child care facility for several months. Child D and Child E's Mother denied ever seeing any children left alone. She stated that whenever she goes there to pick her children, she always sees at lease two or three Child Care Staff Members present. I conducted a follow-up phone call with the complainant on 07/29/2021 to get clarification of her initial statement. She explained that she and Ms. McLain had four infants present in infant 1 room. Three of the four infants were assigned to the infant room 2 and needed to be transferred over to that room. She stated that Child Care Staff Members Presli Huggs and Brooke Hill were the staff members for infant room 2. She told Brooke Hill that she would help her transfer the infants to their room. She grabbed an infant and diaper bag, and Brooke Hill grabbed an infant and diaper bag. She noticed Presli Huggs also coming into the Infant 2 room with an infant and diaper bag. When she went back into infant room 1 there was one infant left in the room alone and she said u

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R 400.8176 · R 400.8176 Sleeping equipment. (13) Soft objects, bumper pads, stuffed toys, blankets, quilts, comforters, and other objects that could smother a child must not be placed in, or within reach of, a crib or porta-crib with a resting or sleeping infant.

The complainant reported that infant Child Care Staff Members would allow infants to sleep in their bibs, loose fitting cloths and blankets and when she tried to tell them that this was not appropriate safe sleep practices, they would ignore her and continue to do it. She stated that this was again something she brought to the director's attention. The program director, Ms. Loper, stated a staff member did not mention anything to her about the infants sleeping in bibs, blankets or loosing fitting clothing. She stated that she has not seen Child Care Staff Members allowing infants to sleep in bibs or blankets, but as far as clothing Child Care Staff Members usually allow the children to sleep in whatever clothing they come in wearing. She stated they don't usually have a concern with the fit of the infants' clothes, but she will advise her staff to ensure that clothes are fitting secure on the infants and advise them to take them off during naptime if they are not. Ms. Hugg stated that if parents send infants with a blanket, they will put it on them until the fall asleep and then take it off them. They only do it to help them fall asleep. She denied that they allow infants to sleep in bibs but loose-fitting clothes, she admits, they never really think about. They allow them to sleep in whatever they are wearing when parents bring them in. Ms. McLain stated that they take bibs and blankets off infants as soon as they fall asleep and before they put them in their cribs. She denies that infants sleep in loose- fitting clothes. Child A and Child B's Mother denied having any concerns regarding the care and supervision that the center is providing her children. She's never had any concern with her infant sleeping with bibs, blankets or loose- fitting cloths. Child C's Mother stated that she has never seen infants sleeping with their bib, blanket or loose-fitting clothes. She stated that when she picks up her son, they 5 often times apologize to her for taking his pacifier and bib off because they are not allowed to sleep in it. Child D and Child E's Mother stated that she has never noticed infants sleeping with their bib, blanket, or loose-fitting cloths On 08/10/2021, I spoke with Ms. Hill regarding the allegation. Ms. Hill stated that she mostly works in toddler 1 room, but she would sometime sub infant 1 room. She stated that they never allowed children under the age of 1 have blankets in the toddler 1 room and she never seen it happen in the infant room when she was in there.

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R 400.8176 · R 400.8176 Sleeping equipment. (6) Car seats, infant seats, swings, bassinets, and play yards are not approved sleeping equipment.

Ms. Loper stated that a former employee came to her with concerns about what she was noticing in the classroom she was working in. She stated that Ms. Hooks told her that she noticed that infants were sleeping in swings. She stated that once Ms. Hook brought that to her attention, she addressed it with staff. She denied that Ms. Hooks told her that she was told by staff that infants do not sleep in cribs. Ms. Hugg stated they like to make sure that the infants are fully asleep before they move them to the crib. They don't leave them in their long, maybe 5 minutes or they will take them out and rock them to make sure they are fully asleep before they put them in the crib. The only time they might leave them sleeping in equipment is when they are feeding another infant and it's only for about 5 or 10 minutes, not very long or very often does that happen. She denies that anyone was told that infants don't sleep in cribs. Ms. McLain stated that they only time infants don't sleep in cribs is when parents have a doctor's note. She stated that when infants fall asleep in equipment they move them right away, maybe within a minute or two of them falling asleep. The complainant stated that Child Care Staff Members would leave infants in bouncers and the swings for their entire nap. However, she would move her primary children and when she would try to move them staff members would say "no" they're going to wake up. Child A and Child B's Mother stated she haven't had any issues with safe sleep practices. But, for a long time they were unable to go into the center but as far as she knows there has been no issues. Child C's Mother stated she has never seen any children sleeping in anything but their crib. Child D and Child E's Mother stated she's had no issues with safe sleep. She said she knows that staff always tell her that her son wakes up when they put him in his crib which tells her that he doesn't sleep in rockers, swings, or bouncers.

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