Incident investigation·March 9, 2022

On March 9, 2022 at 1:15 PM, Licensing Program Analyst (LPA), Marie Hernandez, conducted an unannounced Case Management Inspection due to an incident with child #1 and child #2. On 02/25/2022, the Department received the incident report from the facility for child #1. LPA met with the facility director, Tina Prowant. LPA conducted several interviews with the staff and the Director. However, the children could not be interviewed as they are nonverbal. The facility reports that on 02/18/2022 at 5:34 PM, a twenty month old child #1 was left unattended outside in the play yard for approximately twenty seconds. The teachers were in the play yard with eight children but when they were leaving the play yard, they only had seven children with them. Child #1 was left behind in the enclosed play yard. The staff noticed they were one child short and went back to the play yard to retrieve child #1. The Director stated the parent was immediately contacted and advised about the incident. Through the course of the incident review, LPA inspected the play yard and conducted several interviews with the staff and the Director. The Director showed LPA video footage of the incident. The staff were lined up with the children and closed the gate behind them leaving child #1 in the enclosed play yard. The children could not be interviewed as they are infants and nonverbal. On the day of the incident, there were eight infants with three staff. The interviews revealed that the staff did not take an accurate headcount of the children, thus leaving child #1 behind in the enclosed play yard. On 02/17/2022, the Department received an incident report from the facility regarding the incident with child #2. The facility reports that on 02/16/2022 at 9:30 AM, a sixteen month old child #2 was walking with two staff and eight children when child #2 slipped and fell. Child #2 fell hitting the back of her head. The Director stated child #2 sustained a minor scratch on the back of child's head. The Director stated the parent was notified and took child to the doctors. LPA conducted several interviews with the staff and the Director. The interviews revealed that the incident was an accident. The following deficiency is being cited on page 2 (LIC809D) for child #1 being left unattended in the play yard on 02/18/2022. The incident with child #2 was an accident and no citation is being issued for that incident of 02/16/2022. An exit interview was conducted, and a copy of the report was provided to the Director. The Director was advised that acknowledgement of the receipt of the report is to be received within 24 hours.