Harvest Child & Youth Development Center - New Castle

OCCL Standards Complaint (Substantiated)

“On March 28, 2024, the Office of Child Care Licensing (OCCL) received a complaint regarding allegations of not being respectful to a child and their needs. An investigation was conducted on May 2, 2024. This complaint is substantiated because when interviewed, Staff #1 stated to Adult #1 that Child #1, a two-year-old, must dress herself. After Adult #1 responded with concerns about that not being developmentally appropriate, Staff #1 rolled her eyes and ignored the concerns. Staff #1 stated she eventually helped Child #1 with her clothing.”

27U Ratios, Group Size, and Supervision

“Ensure maximum group size is maintained at all times. The One Year Old classroom (K2A) had 22 children and 3 teachers present. The Maximum group size was exceeded as there should be no more than 12 children in the classroom. LS Hackett and LS Bailey spoke with Administrator Williams regarding the non-compliance and [name] agreed to comply in the future.”

Corrected during the visit

OCCL Standards Complaint (Substantiated)

“On February 12, 2024, the Office of Child Care Licensing (OCCL) received a complaint regarding staff members beginning work prior to being determined eligible by the Criminal History Unit (CHU), lack of supervision, being out of staff-to-child ratio, having unqualified staff in the classrooms, not following a daily schedule including not providing outdoor play, and overuse of screen time. Additionally, this complaint was received regarding not washing children s bedding weekly, not cleaning and sanitizing the center daily, staff using their cellphones while working with children, no milk being provided during meals, and not all required meal components being offered. An investigation was conducted on February 16, 2024. This complaint is substantiated for staff working before completing a comprehensive background check and being determined eligible by CHU because four staff members present at the visit had not yet been determined eligible. Three of these staff were working before having fingerprints taken. This complaint is also substantiated for lack of supervision because children were observed in the boys bathroom unsupervised. This complaint is substantiated for not providing daily outdoor play because the infant and toddler classrooms were not provided outdoor play as listed on their daily schedule during this visit. This complaint is substantiated for overuse of screen time because more than one staff member interviewed stated over an hour of screen time is provided daily. This complaint is substantiated for staff using cell phones because two staff members were observed using their cell phones during nap time while responsible for caring for children, and one staff member was speaking on their cell phone in a classroom while caring for children. This complaint is also substantiated for not providing the required meal components because chocolate milk was provided to the children for lunch. There is no evidence to substantiate this complaint for not wash ing the nap bedding weekly because of interviews where staff stated the bedding is provided by parents and sent home weekly for cleaning. There is no evidence to substantiate this complaint for not cleaning and sanitizing the center daily because the applicant Raymond Williams and Administrator Letitia Williams stated the center has four contracted staff solely to clean and sanitize the center after closing and staff members stated they clean and sanitize throughout the day. There is no evidence to substantiate children not being served all food components because the menu matched what was being served on the day of this visit and met the requirements. An additional concern noted at the visit was the presence of school-age children in classrooms that were not enrolled in the center, some of the classrooms not having staff members signed out, and two classrooms not having children signed in or out. An additional concern noted at this visit was exceeding the maximum group size in the infant classroom and multiple infant safe sleep violations. During an initial walkthrough, an infant was asleep on a boppy pillow on the floor and another infant was asleep in a crib with a blanket. This was corrected, and then during a second walkthrough, this same infant classroom was over the maximum group size with 10 children present. The infants in the classroom again had blankets and bottles in their cribs. The same infant that was sleeping on the floor earlier in the visit was asleep in a swing with a blanket. Infant bottles were not labeled. The cribs were less than 18 inches apart. An additional concern noted was the use of an air freshener plug-in a classroom.”

40U Child Files

“All child files must be complete. Send the signed parent permission form for one child. Send the current health appraisal with immunizations for one child. Send the blood lead screening for one child.”

Correction date in the state record: Feb 19, 2024

38U Parents Right to Know

“Send the completed Parent Right to Know log.”

Correction date in the state record: Feb 19, 2024

30U Personnel Files

“All staff files must be complete. Send the DEEDS certificate for one staff member. Send the CPR/First Aid certificate for six staff members. Send the Administration of Medication certificate for six staff members. Send the professional development plan for seven staff members. Send the Send the annual safe sleep and child abuse and neglect for one staff member. Send the staff orientation record for five staff members. Send the Health & Safety training for seven staff members. Send the references for seven staff members. Send the fingerprinting receipt for one staff member. Send the adult abuse registry for six staff members. Send the health appraisal with TB for four staff members. Send the release of employment history for two staff members. Send the service letters for eight staff members.”

Correction date in the state record: Mar 7, 2024

75U Activity Areas

“Ensure all classrooms include the five required areas. Classroom K2B is missing science and art. Send pictures.”

Correction date in the state record: Jan 19, 2023

74U Lesson Plans

“Ensure all lesson plans include the food/healthy habits activity at least once a week. Send copies of the completed lesson plans for classrooms K4 and K4B.”

Correction date in the state record: Jan 19, 2023

63U Administration of Medication

“Send the completed Administration of Medication training certificate for five staff members.”

Correction date in the state record: Mar 1, 2023

56U Sleeping Accommodations and Safe Sleep Environments

“Ensure all cots are labeled in classrooms K2B and K4.”

Correction date in the state record: Jan 19, 2023

49U Indoor Space

“Remove the plug-in air freshener from classroom K4.”

Correction date in the state record: Jan 19, 2023

45U Hazardous Materials

“Ensure all hazardous chemicals are locked out of the children's reach in the following classrooms: K3A, K4, K4B, and K2B.”

Correction date in the state record: Jan 19, 2023

40U Child Files

“All child files must be complete. Send the documentation of the completed blood lead screening for five children.”

Correction date in the state record: Feb 12, 2023

32U Orientation

“Send the Health and Safety training certificate for all staff members.”

Correction date in the state record: Mar 1, 2023

30U Personnel Files

“All staff files must be complete. Send the current CPR/First Aid for six staff members Send the completed professional development plan for three staff members. Send the annual safe sleep and child abuse and neglect for six staff members. Send the completed staff orientation record for four staff members. Send the job description for two staff members. Send the references for six staff members. Send the adult abuse registry for nine staff members. Send the health appraisal with TB for four staff members. Send the service letters for six staff members.”

Correction date in the state record: Mar 1, 2023

24U Staff Qualifications

“Send the DEEDS Early Learning certificate for six staff members.”

Correction date in the state record: Mar 1, 2023