Office review·January 3, 2024

On January 3, 2024 at 2:15pm, Licensing Program Manager (LPM), Marie Rodriguez, and Licensing Program Analysts (LPAs), Catrina Quimbo and Yasha Nasiripour, met with preschool director, Julie Picardal, for an informal office meeting. Present during meeting included director's sister. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss an incident that occurred at facility October 27, 2023. 1 teaching staff and 7 enrolled children were present in classroom B. During pickup time, an enrolled child exited classroom without a staff member. Gate to preschool in alley was open and child ran down preschool alley, towards preschool's stairs, located outside and away from preschool classrooms. Director found enrolled child on preschool stairs and brought child back to class without any injuries. Per director, entire incident was approximately 5 minutes. A complaint regarding incident was reported to department November 20, 2023. A complaint visit was conducted by LPAs November 29, 2023. Complaint was found to be substantiated. During today's visit, LPM discussed the citation and civil penalty issued for incident. Plan of correction are as follows: Director immediately informed child's parents of incident. Director held an informal staff meeting to reinforce importance of supervision of children and counting procedures. Staff involved in incident received counselling by elementary school principal. Director, elementary school principal, and child's family met to discuss incident. Director has placed signs on all gates, reminding individuals to close all gates to preschool program. Director has implemented new pickup procedures and protocols that includes children being picked up from the inside of the classroom. Deficiency issued during complaint visit has been cleared with today\342\200\231s office meeting. Exit interview conducted and report was reviewed with the director, Julie Picardal.