• Violation

  R 400.1908 · R 400.1908 Capacity. (1) The licensee shall ensure that the actual number of unrelated children in care at any 1 time does not exceed the number of children for which the child care home is licensed, not more than 6 children for a family child care home and not more than 12 children for a group child care home.

  On 11/02/2021, I conducted an unannounced onsite inspection at Ms. Spano- Mercure's child care home. I informed Ms. Spano-Mercure that a complaint had been received alleging she was over capacity. Ms. Spano-Mercure and another child care staff member, Rhea Dane, were present with 10 children in care. Ms. Mercure denied that she was over capacity and expressed her frustration about the number of investigations she had experienced. I explained that there were allegedly pictures on Facebook showing a number of children in care. Ms. Spano-Mercure stated she has not put anything on Facebook recently, so she was not sure what was on there. She then recalled putting some pictures of Katelyn Spano's, a child care staff member, last day of work on 10/15/2021. Many of the parents were present with their children to say goodbye to Ms. Spano. Ms. Spano-Mercure denied that the home was over capacity that day. Ms. Spano-Mercure provided child information cards for follow up telephone calls to parents. After the onsite inspection, I observed Ms. Spano-Mercure's public Facebook page and saw pictures of what appeared to be a Halloween Party in October 2020. There were more than 12 children present in some pictures, but there were several pictures showing multiple parents and adults present at the party. The pictures of Ms. Spano's last day of work on 10/15/2021 were not visible on the public Facebook page. On 12/21/2021, I conducted a telephone interview with Child B's Mother. Child B's Mother stated she has seen around eight children in the home and has never observed 19 or 20 children present. She did not have any concerns regarding capacity or ratio. She and Child A were not present during the goodbye party for Ms. 3 Spano. Child B's Mother did not have any concerns regarding the quality of care provided by Ms. Spano-Mercure. On 12/21/2021, a telephone message was left for Child C's Mother. A telephone interview was also attempted with Child D's Mother, but her voicemail box was not set up and a message could not be left. On 12/21/2021, I left a telephone message for Jennifer Walter, child care staff member. On 12/22/2021, I received a return call from Ms. Walter. She denied there were ever more than 12 children and said there are never 19-20 children in care. She did not have any concerns about the child care home. On 12/22/2021, I conducted a telephone interview with Child A's Mother. She denied ever observing more than 12 children in care and had never observed 19-20 children in care during child care hours. She indicated that Ms. Spano-Mercure has had parties, like a pool party, where children in care and parents were present, but this was not child care. On 12/22/2021, I conducted a telephone exit interview with Ms. Spano-Mercure and informed her I had not found any evidence to support a violation of the capacity rule.

On 10/15/2021, there appears to have been 19-20 children in care at the same time. There is a picture on the Baby Acres Child Care & School Prep Facebook page that is on public status. On social media there is also a video from 10/28/2020 that there appears to have been 21 in care.

Disposition: Substantiated