Incident investigation·April 12, 2021

A Tele-inspection was conducted today at 1:45:pm, by Licensing Program Analyst (LPA), Melchisedeck Augustin to investigate an incident related to reports of a staff (S3) smacking a child on the hand. Due to the COVID pandemic, the Department suspended field operations and Center Director Rose Canarios (CD) agreed to meet with LPA via video conference. The facility self-reported and submitted an unusual incident report (UIR) on 04/06/21. At 1:45pm, LPA interviewed CD and staff (S1-S3) and conducted a subsequent interview with a parent at 3:13pm. According to the statements that CD and staff (S1 & S2) provided, S3 worked in the infant classroom, S3 did not work in the Pre-K classroom, but S3 sometimes relieved other staff for a break in the Discovery Preschool class. The statements suggested that S3 had not crossed paths with C1 and S3’s prior interaction with the children were positive, staff never witnessed S3 violate any child’s personal rights; and staff statements were consistent with that of CD. The statement that S3 provided, denied she ever smacked C1 on the hand, claiming she did not work in the classroom where C1 was assigned, and C1 was in a different cohort than that of S3. S3 claimed the facility trained her to redirect the children as a method of discipline, she had not seen any staff violate any child’s personal rights; and S3 felt that the facility conducted training often enough for her to feel confident in her ability to report any incidents involving violation of a child’s personal rights. The statement that the parent provided noted that the parent had not seen any bruises or marks on C1’s hand, and the parent never saw or heard anything that caused her to be concern about staff violating C1’s personal rights. Based on staff and the parent statements, there was not enough preponderance to substantiate that S3 smacked C1 on the hand. LS's signature was not recorded on this Facility Evaluation Report (FER), however; LS was provided with a copy of this FER, and LS's confirmation of read receipt is on file. Notice of Site Visit shall be posted for 30 days from today’s inspection. There were no title 22 deficiencies cited during this visit.