NC GS 110-90 · Violation

Name of Operation: KAREN'S DAY CARE Facility ID: 16000138 Consultant: ANDREA JOHNSON Operation Type: Family CC Home Case Number: Visit Date: 8/21/2025 Number Present: 5 Completed Date: 8/21/2025 Age: From 0 To 3 Total Minutes: 166 Time In: 08:59 AM Time Out: 11:45 AM Time In: Time Out: List to Use: Family CC Home Type Of Visit: Annual Comp Full Announced/Unannounced: Unannounced The purpose of today’s visit was to monitor your program for compliance with applicable child care requirements for an annual compliance visit. Your family childcare home currently operates with a 1-star license issued November 1, 2010. Childcare Consultant, Heather Elliott, accompanied me on today’s visit. The facility’s last annual compliance visit was conducted on August 29, 2024. The family child care home’s compliance history was reviewed with the operator. The program’s compliance history was one hundred (100%) percent as of August 21, 2025. Restrictions on the permit include 1st and 2nd shift care, and a maximum of five (5) preschool children cared for at any time. You, Karen Muehlenkamp, were present and available for consultation during the visit. Ten (10) children between the ages of zero (0) and nine (9) are enrolled and five (5) were present today. All spaces used by the children, indoors and outdoors, were monitored. Ms. Muehlenkamp has a room set up exclusively for childcare. Upon arrival at your facility, you and the children were in the childcare space. Older preschool children were engaged in a variety of free play activities which included coloring with markers, and manipulative toys on the carpet. One (1) infant was asleep in a crib. Infants received routine care based on their individual needs. The children transitioned from free play to morning snack which consisted of goldfish crackers, orange slices, and milk. Infants had grain and grown sweet potato puffs and milk. Routine toileting, handwashing, and food service procedures were monitored, and requirements were met. The outdoor space had a variety of gross motor equipment which included swings, climbing equipment, and a garden with children’s gardening tools. A storage of extra outdoor toys was available for the children. Today all children’s files were monitored. Health and safety trainings and the facility’s safe sleep policy, and safe sleep policies were monitored, and requirements were met. Today, you reported that you are currently not providing transportation. Today, you completed a copy of the FCCH Operator’s Statements of Responsibility and the Verification of Required Information for Operator and Additional Caregivers Form. You are required to complete fifteen (15) ongoing training hours per year, and you have completed twenty-two (22). You have seven (7) training hours that may be carried forwarded for next year on going training requirements. Violation Number Comment Rule 2031 Operator did not provide a copy of the shaken baby syndrome and abusive head trauma policy to parents at time of enrollment, and / or within fourteen days of a changes to the policy. One (1) out of ten (10) children’s records reviewed did not have a copy of the shaken baby syndrome and abusive head trauma policy to parents at time of enrollment, and / or within fourteen days of a changes to the policy. .1726(b)&(c) Child Care programs are expected to achieve and maintain compliance at all times and are required by NC GS 110-90(4) (d) to achieve and maintain an eighteen-month compliance history score of at least seventy-five percent. Any violations documented may impact the compliance history score. Any violations documented must be corrected immediately. On or before Thursday, September 4, 2025, I must receive a written, dated, and signed compliance letter that describes accurately and in detail how and when the violations were corrected. Please be aware any information submitted by you is legal documentation. If it is determined the information provided in the letter is not true, this may be considered falsification of information. If sufficient information is not received by the due date, a follow-up visit will be conducted. Mail or email the information to: Andrea Johnson, Child Care Consultant andrea.johnson@dhhs.nc.gov PO Box 904 Beaufort, NC 28516 252-732-0183 If you email the compliance letter, it must be sent from the email address registered with the DCDEE (this serves as your signature) and the following information must be included: name, position, facility name, and facility ID number. An example is: Jane Doe, Administrator AAA Child Care ID # 12345678 Technical Assistance: Shaken Baby and Abusive Head Trauma Policy: All staff and parents of children under the age of 5 years old must sign a statement acknowledging that the policy has been reviewed with them, and the statements must be kept on file. Today you stated that today is the first day for one (1) of the infants currently enrolled at your facility, and the parent has not returned the signed copy of your facility’s Shaken Baby and Abusive Head Trauma Policy. Please let me know in your compliance letter when you have reviewed the policy with parents and obtained signed acknowledgments from them. Clean Classrooms for Carolina Kids: Your facility’s status, according to the Clean Classrooms for Carolina Kids website, shows the following: • Water Testing-Completed on April 24, 2024. Water testing must be completed every three (3) years. • Lead-Based Paint- Exempt-N/A • Asbestos- Exempt-N/A QRIS Modernization Update On June 26th, the North Carolina Rules Review Commission (RRC) approved the QRIS Modernization rules adopted by the NC Child Care Commission during their April meeting. The Division of Child Development and Early Education is preparing a summary of the rules, an online training module for Moodle, and an implementation plan. A webinar will be scheduled later this month to share the implementation plan and will also provide resources that can assist you with understanding the new rules. The implementation plan will allow time for administrators/operators to learn and understand the different pathways and the changes within our system. We encourage you to visit the QRIS Modernization page on the DCDEE website to learn more now, and, if you have not already completed the QRIS survey, we’d love to hear from you. The information you provide will help us know how we can best serve you in preparing for this transition. The DCDEE has a new initiative – Natural Outdoor Learning Initiative. Through this initiative, we hope to increase knowledge and confidence for everyone in developing and implementing best practices to support the creation, programming, and safe use of naturalized outdoor spaces in child care facilities. You can learn more by visiting the NLI website, where you will also find many resources, including an updated Toolkit designed to help you enhance your outdoor learning environment. The downloadable NLI Toolkit is available at: https://naturalearning.org/preschool-outdoor-toolkit. Reminders: For the latest information on childcare rules and regulations, please visit the Division of Child Development and Early Education's website at: https://ncchildcare.ncdhhs.gov/ At the completion of the visit, this visit summary and enrollment were reviewed with you. Due to technological difficulties, the visit summary was emailed to you for a signature. Please remember to keep a copy of the signed visit summary for your records. If you have any questions and/or concerns, you have my contact information. If the operator fails to correct any documented violations within the established time period, the Division of Child Development and Early Education may deny, suspend, terminate, or revoke any permit to operate (10A NCAC 09 .2000). All information in this report has been reviewed with me today.I understand that it is my responsibility to maintaincompliance with applicable NC Child Care Requirements at all times