• Violation

  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

  On August 26, 2022, I was notified of the incident by program director/licensee Leann Guinn. F On August 29, 2022, I interviewed Child A's mother. She received a call from Leann Guinn at 1:59pm on August 29, 2022, stating that Child A had been missing but that they had found him. Child A started "Begindergarten" at North Branch Elementary School on August 25, 2022. He started attending the FABS child care program at the school at this time for before and after-school care. There was no school on August 29, 2022, and child A was in the child care program all day this day. She was told that all of the children were in the FABS room watching a movie and that Child A left the room and that staff assumed he was going to the bathroom that is across the hall from the classroom. She was also told that Child A was located by a brick wall outside and had been missing for approximately 20 minutes. Child A told her that he had played on the "big rock" on the playground when he was outside. Child A's mother said that Child A doesn't even go to the bathroom alone at home so she did not understand how he could just leave the classroom, and no one would notice. She also questioned as to why the crisis alert button that all staff wear this year was not used. On August 29, 2022, I made an unannounced onsite inspection to the child care. I interviewed child care staff member Jessica Jones. She was present in the classroom on August 25, 2022, when Child A left the classroom. She said she did not see Child A leave the classroom and that this happened during shift change. Child care staff members that were leaving for the day were speaking with incoming staff. Including both shifts overlapping, there were 7 caregivers total and 27 children ages 4 through 10 years in the classroom at that time. The procedure in the FABS room is that children have to ask a caregiver to use the restroom since the restroom is not located in the classroom. Caregiver Alyssa Dodds confirmed that she was working in the FABS classroom when Child A left the classroom. She did not see Child A leave the classroom. She did not know that he was missing until someone asked her if Child A had asked her for permission to leave the classroom and said that someone had just found Child A walking around the school. While at the school, I spoke to child care staff member Cindy Quiroz who stated that she had left before Child A went missing and did not have any information regarding the incident. I interviewed 2nd grade teacher Christyl Ellsworth at the school as it was reported that she was the one that found Child A. She said that she had locked her keys in her car so she had someone give her a ride back to the school on that Friday so that she could get her car. When she arrived at the school parking lot, her car was the only car in the parking lot. She saw a young child standing by her car. She asked him what he was doing, and he told her his mom was at work. Ms. Ellsworth initially thought that perhaps a family had come to the school to use the playground and Child A had gotten separated from the others. When she figured out that he was with the FABS child care program, she took him to the school office. She estimated that approximately 5 minutes had passed from when she spotted Child A until he was in the school office. Child A appeared to be calm and was not upset when she interacted with him. 3 Program director/licensee designee Leann Gwinn confirmed that Child A had left the classroom during shift change. At the time that Child A left the classroom, there were six staff present. The emergency button was not used during the time that Child A was missing as everyone thought that Child A was in the bathroom, and they didn't realize that he had left the building until the office called and said that a teacher had found Child A outside. When she received the call from the office regarding Child A, she asked the three afternoon child care staff members if Child A had asked any of them

On August 26, 2022, Child A (male, age 4) left the building.

Disposition: Substantiated