Complaint·July 16, 2024

The allegation is Facility licensee is not providing a comfortable indoor temperature for children in care. Interviews revealed that the facility air conditioner unit began to malfunction sometime in the month of May, so the Facility Director contacted the maintenance service for the facility, and they sent out an air conditioner technician. The AC unit then started to function once again the following day and finally gave out in the afternoon. The technician was notified of the issue and when evaluated it was determined that the HVAC system required to be replaced. Further interviews revealed that the Facility Director was closely monitoring the temperatures to ensure it did not reach uncomfortable temperature and portable cooling systems were brought in on May 30th for Rooms 3 & 6. On 05/31/24, wall fans were purchased and installed in all classrooms. LPA confirmed that all classrooms were set up with portable cooling units on June 11th and A/C floor units were also ordered due to the delay in obtaining approval for purchase of the HVAC system. LPA also verified that staff were keeping track of the temperature in all classrooms and maintained logs to ensure they met licensing regulation requirements. As per the staff and facility director, the children were at no time distressed due to the temperature and the classroom temperatures did not exceed 85 degrees at any point in the weeks of June. In July when the temperatures began to soar, the children were relocated to other classrooms to maintain a safe and comfortable environment. The HVAC units were installed on July 1st and as per the Facility program administrator, the temperatures have been recorded as between 72 and 78 degrees in July. The new HVAC unit was installed on July 1st , 2024 and the children were back in Room 6 and Room 3 on July 8th after verifying the units were functioning properly in the respective classrooms. From the information received by interviews with staff, and facility documents the above allegation cannot be verified. Although the allegation may have happened or is valid, there is not a preponderance of evidence to prove the allegation did or did not occur, therefore, the allegation is UNSUBSTANTIATED. An exit interview was conducted, a Notice of Site Visit posted, and a copy of this report was provided to the facility on this date and time.