Discovery Central

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 10/11/2021, 1 received a verbal notification of a falling incident where the child received medical treatment for a minor concussion. This was followed up on 10/12/2021 with an incident report that described the incident that occurred on 10/08/2021 at 11:00 am: "For the morning adventure, Marlie and Hannah took the students to Lower Harbor Park. The kids were playing in the area to climb trees (before climbing, Hannah and Marlie were clear on how high is safe for the kids to climb). We were getting ready to go back to Monkey School and Child A was in the tree. Hannah was right next to Child A and asked if he needed help to get down. He agreed to letting Hannah help him down the tree. Child A was about four feet up the tree. Hannah used a branch for leverage to get Child A down. As Hannah got Child A, the branch broke from underneath her, causing Child A to fall out of the tree into a dirt spot on the ground. Hannah got up right away and checked Child A for injury. Child A was shaken up and crying. Child A was able to wave to Marlie who carried him back to Monkey School from the Lower Harbor. Back at Monkey school, Child A talked to Hannah and remembered what had happened. He ate his snack also." On 10/8/2021 at 12:30 p.m., Child A's Mother was notified via telephone. On 10/11/2021, the center staff was informed that Child A had been treated for a minor concussion. 2 On 10/13/2021, I interviewed Sarah Misale, the interim director and owner, and Hannah Pickens, staff member, at the child care center. Clarification was received that they refer to the Discovery club classroom as "Monkey School." Sarah had been out on the date of the incident. Marlie was a substitute that day and Hannah was a new staff member. Hannah was working on required Health & Safety courses. She said that it was a lot of information in these courses that she was not familiar with. Hannah was tearful and distraught about Child A being injured. She showed me photos of the tree and the branch that had broken. I went to Lower Harbor Park to observe the location of the incident. Lower Harbor park has large open areas and average-sized pine and hardwood trees. The tree that had been climbed by Child A did not appear to have any outstanding safety issues. However, Child A was 39 months old when this incident occurred. He had been climbing the tree independently until it was time to leave the park and Hannah tried to help him down. On 10/13/2021, I spoke with Marlie Fowler, staff member. She described the incident stating, they were leaving from Lower Harbor Park and Child A was climbing in the branches of a sturdy pine tree about six feet off the ground. Hannah went to assist him. Marlie was about 30 to 40 feet away from the tree and she "only saw him fall." Marlie scooped him up. He was scared. Child A knows Marlie better because she had worked there all summer. On this date, Marie was a substitute caregiver because she had moved on from regular employment there. Marlie met Hannah for the first time on Friday. Hannah was serving as the lead caregiver on that date because other staff members were out. Marlie asked Child A if he was hurt and he said no. He said he was scared. He cried hard and was sobbing. He did not need first aid, but they were watching for symptoms of injury. Parental permission had not been given specifically for climbing trees. When she was working as assistant teacher in the summer, kids climbed in trees. There was no specific training for staff members or evaluating of children for this skill. Staff members relied on modeling from the lead teacher on how to handle it. Staff members were advised to tell children to know their limits. Tree climbing was encouraged in the program. Marlie was concerned about the lack of structure in the program and struggled with not being trained. She felt overwhelmed by the lack of safety protocols and limits. She had not experienced adequate training, especially about parameters or boundaries. There was no c

View state record