R 400.8125 Staff; volunteer; requirements. (1) All staff and volunteers shall provide appropriate care and supervision of children at all times.
On August 3, 2021, Assistant Program Director Kalie Brown from Childtime self-reported an incident of inappropriate supervision of Child A (3 1/2 year-old female) by telephone. It was followed up by a written incident report on August 5, 2021. 2 On August 9, 2021, I spoke with Program Director, Beth Kueppers, who provided more detail about the incident. She explained that the preschool room was getting ready to go outside under the supervision of Child Care Staff Member (CCSM) Elizabeth Poppe. At approximately 12:15pm on August 2, 2021, Ms. Poppe had the children line up, conducted a head count, and walked out of the room leaving Child A behind and alone. The Lead Teacher CCSM Sarah McCormick walked into the preschool room and found Child A by herself and visibly upset. Ms. McCormick brought her to Ms. Brown in the office. Ms. Kueppers was not present in the building at the time the incident occurred. Since the incident, Ms. Kueppers has begun to re-train CCSMs in name to face head counts and the policies about steps taken before leaving the building. On August 11, 2021, I conducted an unannounced inspection at Childtime. Upon arrival I met with Ms. Kueppers. She stated that since the incident CCSM Ms. Poppe, who is a new employee, was put on a final write-up. The video surveillance of the incident was no longer available, but District Manager April Cole reviewed it to make the decision of a write-up. It was Ms. Kuepper's understanding from both Ms. Brown and Child A's Mother that Child A's Father was informed that same day of the incident August 2, 2021. Ms. Kueppers stated she was off from work during week of the incident. She had to explain to Ms. Brown by telephone to call Licensing to report the incident verbally then write up an incident form. (The written incident report had to be revised by Ms. Brown a couple times to provide more information before I would accept the form as final.) As reported by Ms. Kueppers the incident on August 8, 2021, went as follows: Ms. Poppe was in the preschool room that day well within ratio of 1 caregiver/10 children. At 9:45AM Child A arrived in the room. The rest of the morning went as scheduled. (Ms. McCormick was not in the room that day due to low staffing so, she was needed in another capacity.) Ms. Poppe was in the room with 10 children getting ready to go outside at around 12PM. Ms. Poppe had the children line up, conducted a count, and left the room to go outside. Ms. McCormick went to the room for an item and found Child A by herself and visibly upset but not physically hurt. Ms. McCormick took Child A to Ms. Brown. Ms. Brown calmed Child A down in the front office for several minutes. Ms. McCormick went outside to let Ms. Poppe know that Child A had been left inside alone. Ms. Poppe had not realized that Child A had been left in the room. I interviewed Assistant Director Kalie Brown in the office. She explained that she was covering the program director role while Ms. Kueppers was off. At about 12:15PM on August 2, 2021, Ms. McCormick came in the office with Child A who was visibly upset. Ms. McCormick told Ms. Brown that she found Child A alone in the preschool room. Ms. McCormick left Child A with Ms. Brown to find Ms. Poppe. Ms. 3 Brown calmed Child A down enough to have her rejoin her class. She then notified both Ms. Cole and Ms. Kueppers about the incident. They gave her the instructions to notify both Licensing and Child A's Mother. Prior to leaving the building Ms. Kueppers stated that both Ms. Poppe and Ms. McCormick were not working in the building that day. She would let me know when both CCSMs were scheduled to work. On August 12, 2021, I received an emailed written statement from District Manager April Cole. Ms. Cole stated that she reviewed the surveillance footage and saw "Child A was in line at the door to go outside to the playground." "Ms. Poppe did the initial face to name ratio check then went out the classroom door first and the children followed." "Child A