complaint·October 24, 2024

According to the allegations, Licensee did not prevent day care child from physically abusing other day care children resulting in injuries and Licensee is not providing a comfortable and safe environment for day care children. S1 was interviewed on 09/10/2024 and disclosed that an incident occurred on 9/3/2024 in their home involving three children. Per Licensee she was made aware of the incident by a parent. S1 stated that they reviewed the cameras with parent and observed Child #1 (C1), Child #2 (C2) and Child #3 (C3) alone in the day care room as Staff #3 was attending to children in the room next to the day care room. S1 and S2 disclosed during interviews that they were not home at the time of the incident. LPA obtained security camera footage of the incident on 9/10/2024. LPA observed in the security camera footage that C1 hit C3 on their lower back with an open palm then pointed to C2. C3 proceeded to hit C2 in the face with an open palm on the left side of C2’s face. A few seconds later, C3 struck C2 on the face nine consecutive times with an open palm, and C1 hit C3 in the back of head as C3 was hitting C2. LPA observed in the video that C3 grabbed C1 by the neck with both hands for three seconds then proceeded to hit C1 in the back of the head with an open palm. LPA observed S3 walk into the room to address the children after C1 notified the staff of the incident, but LPA was unable to hear the audio. LPA observed that no adult was present in the room during the time of the incident. During the investigation, LPA interviewed S3, and S3 disclosed that they were made aware of the incident after licensee reviewed the camera footage. According to S3 they were in the room next door supervising the other children that were present on that day, and they were “checking periodically” on C1, C2 and C3. S3 stated that S2 was not present in the home as they were picking a child up from school, and Licensee was also not present in the home at the time of the incident. During the course of the investigation, LPA conducted a walk through of the facility to ensure that if staff are in the room next to the day care room that staff are still able to provide care to children. LPA observed that standing in the doorway between the day care room and the activity room does provide the ability to view into both rooms with minimal obstruction. However, LPA observed that by standing near the nap room that is in the hallway, the view into the day care room is obstructed, and no longer able to observe into the day care room. S1 disclosed that S3 was in the process of transitioning the younger children to the nap room at the time of the incident. S2 disclosed that it was their “bad judgment” by allowing C1, C2 and C3 to play in the room together as the children would have been in different rooms due to their ages. ----------------------------------------------------------------P.g. 2 out of 3------------------------------------------------------------ Based on interviews conducted by the LPA and the staff’s own statements, the preponderance of evidence standard has been met, therefore the above allegation is found to be SUBSTANTIATED. California Code of Regulations, (Title 22, Division 12 & chapter 1), are being cited on the attached LIC 9099D. LPA Saul Valenzuela informed licensee's assistant that this report dated 10/24/2024 document one Type A citation which shall be posted for 30 consecutive days as there is/are immediate risk(s) to the health, safety, or personal rights of children in care. Also, LPA Saul Valenzuela informed the licensee's assistant to provide a copy of this licensing report dated 10/24/2024 that documents any Type A citation(s) to parents/guardians of all children currently enrolled by the next business day or the next day the children are in care, and to any newly enrolled parents/guardians for 12 months from the date of this report. A signed Acknowledgement of Receipt of Licensing Report (LIC 9224), or other written statement, must be placed in the child's file for verification. A notice of site visit was given and must remain posted for 30 days. Failure to comply with posting requirements shall result in an immediate civil penalty of $100. An exit interview conducted, and the report was reviewed with Licensee's assistant -----------------------------------------------------------------------P.g. 3 out of 3------------------------------------------------------ During interviews, there were no disclosures by staff, or parents regarding licensee not ensuring facility was not out ratio. S1 stated that they are in ratio and “we are all here” when providing care to children. During records review and interviews, there were no disclosures of the facility to be operating out of their licensing capacity at the time of the investigation. When asked if S1 uses sign in/out sheets, S1 stated that they use their security cameras to account for attendance. S1 disclosed that security camera footage is kept for a week then it is gets deleted. At the time of the investigation LPA was unable to view camera footage of children present. Per S3 they care for eight children when S1 and S2 are not present in the home. Per licensee, they currently have 11 children enrolled. During the initial visit, licensee was observed to be operating within the license capacity limitations. This agency has investigated the complaint alleging Licensee did not ensure facility was not out of ratio. Based upon the evidence as presented above, the allegations have been determined to be Unsubstantiated. A finding of Unsubstantiated means that although the allegations may have happened or are valid, there is not a preponderance of evidence to prove alleged violation(s) did or did not occur, therefore at this time the above allegations are unsubstantiated. There were no deficiencies cited on the above-mentioned allegations per California Code of Regulations Title 22. A notice of site visit was given and must remain posted for 30 days. Failure to comply with posting requirements shall result in an immediate civil penalty of $100. Exit interview conducted and report was reviewed with Licensee’s assistant, at 3:00 p.m.. Copy of Report provided. END OF REPORT PAGE 2 of 2