Winchell Prime Time

R 400.8125 · R 400.8125 1 Staff; volunteer; requirements. (1) All staff and volunteers shall provide appropriate care and supervision of children at all times.

On March 8, 2023, I received an email from Licensee Designee, Bobby Ludwick reporting that two children were left on the playground unsupervised. She reported they were collecting more information and would send an incident report. The incident report was received on 3/9/2023. On March 10, 2023, I made telephone contact with Child A's mother and Child B's mother. Child A's mother reported when she picked up Child A from Winchell Prime 2 Time on March 8, 2023, she was informed by the substitute program director, James Robinson that her child and one other child were accidentally left on the playground unsupervised. Mr. Robinson told Child A's mother they had other groups playing on the playground that day and they had some administrative stuff going on that caused the perfect storm. He said Child A and Child B were outside for approximately 20 minutes and then a community group at the school brought them inside. Child A's mother said she asked Child A what happened and was told they were playing in the tunnel, and they didn't hear the staff calling when it was time to go inside. She said Child A was not upset about the incident and the staff members were quick to apologize. Child B's mother said she was informed of the incident at pick up on March 8, 2023. The staff were appropriately apologetic, and Child B was not fazed by being left outside. She reported being upset that the child care staff members were not aware of the children missing until they were brought inside. Child B's mother believes the facility needs to come up with a better count system because it does not appear to be working. On March 14, 2023, I completed an unannounced onsite inspection at the facility and interviewed child care staff member (CCSM) 1 and CCSM 2. CCSM 1 reported that on the day of the incident he remembers staff repeatedly calling "prime time, time to line up." He said the kids then clean everything up and line up on the outside wall of the school. CCSM 1 said he did not count the children before they headed inside, but that Mr. Robinson may have counted. They did not realize they were missing any children until about 20 minutes later when Child A and Child B were brought into the cafeteria by a volunteer from a community group at the school. CCSM 2 reported that when they were on the playground there were also children from the parks and rec program and "the nutrition lady" came while outside. CCSM 2 told Mr. Robinson that they needed to go inside for the nutrition lady. She reported that she went inside to start getting snack ready while CCSM 1 and Mr. Robinson worked on getting the children inside. CCSM 2 said, normally program director, Emily Homrich is in charge of counting, but she called in that day and was not present. Approximately 20 minutes after they came inside a volunteer from a community group at the school brought Child A and Child B back inside. She reported the children were not upset, but more apologetic for not hearing it was time to come inside. On April 26, 2023, I made telephone contact with Mr. Robinson. He reported that they took count before they went outside on that day. It was much busier than normal on the playground with well over 100 people because other after school groups were playing there as well. He called repeatedly that it was time to come in and scoured the playground because kids go into unorthodox places to play sometimes. The nutrition lady was there as well, so they were rushing to get inside, and they forgot to count. When Child A and Child B were brought back inside they were not upset and said they didn't recognize anyone on the playground after a 3 while and realized they should come inside. Mr. Robinson reported he was covering for Ms. Homrich, and he goes to all the sites as a fill in program director, so he is not entirely familiar with all the children at each site. He has worked at Winchell Prime Time since this incident, and they have made the space approved for outdoor play smaller to all