KDHE suspends Wichita daycare license over banned workers, staff taping shoes to kid
A west Wichita child care provider has had its license suspended by the state after an inspector found a number of violations during an onsite survey — including forgoing staff background checks, allowing staff to work after they’d been banned from the site, calling a sick person into work and letting one worker tape a child’s shoes to her feet.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said Thursday that it had issued an emergency order of suspension against We R Kids Learning Center, 10221 W. 13th St., which is operated by WRK Corp. The suspension is effective immediately.
The daycare could not be reached for comment Thursday. No one answered the phone when The Eagle called its business number, and the facility did not immediately respond to a Facebook message.
According to the order, an inspector conducting an on-site complaint survey at the daycare earlier this week found that it had “knowingly allowed two prohibited persons to maintain employment at the facility” in violation of state law and regulations governing how child care centers should operate.
We R Kids was told that one of the employees was banned from the property on May 20 and the facility told the KDHE that they had been terminated, the order says. However, the KDHE learned that the employee had actually continued working there, using a different name.
We R Kids was told on June 29 that the second employee was prohibited from working at the daycare, according to the order.
Again, the facility claimed to the KDHE that the employee had been fired, but in reality that person continued their employment, “regularly working onsite,” the order contends.
“Facility staff did not provide reasonable information to the KDHE inspector when the staff members provided inaccurate names of the staff working on the day of the survey,” the order says.
The daycare also failed to operate with “strict regard for the health, safety, and welfare of children in care” when it called into work a staff member who had told by a doctor to stay home “due to infectious illness.”
That ill staff member was supposed to be off until Aug. 18, but was on site “caring for children” during the KDHE inspector’s visit.
The daycare was also cited on Aug. 17 for:
- Letting a five-week-old infant sleep in a bouncer instead of in a crib or playpen
- Not using bottom sheets for children to sleep on at nap time in three rooms
- Using staff members who did not meet training requirements in three rooms
- Not maintaining the required staff-to-child ratio in two rooms. In one room, a single staff member was caring for 10 toddlers. In another, one staff member was responsible for providing care to five infants and a 3-year-old
- Two children were not in their designated rooms
- Paperwork designating the person in charge for all hours of facility operation was not readily available
- Not following age limits and the number of children in rooms
- Allowing a staff member to tape a child’s shoes to her feet so she could not remove them, which demonstrates a lack of “sound judgment and an understanding of children”
- Failing to complete necessary background checks on staff members
An inspection the following day, on Aug. 18, uncovered violations of state law including:
- Ignored minimum staff-to-student ratios
- Not following room capacity limits
- Failing to provide all personal information necessary to complete a background check before letting one staff member work
This isn’t the first time the daycare has been in trouble. Thursday’s order says We R Kids also entered into a consent agreement and final order with the KDHE last fall to resolve problems at the site.
The daycare “is currently in violation” of the terms of that agreement, Thursday’s order says.
The KDHE says in the order that immediate suspension of We R Kids’ child care license “is necessary to protect any child in the child care facility from physical or mental abuse, abandonment, or any other substantial threat to health, safety or welfare.”
In addition to having its license suspended, We R Kids is required to notify parents and guardians of their students of the KDHE’s suspension action.
We R Kids can appeal the decision. A petition for review by a judge must be filed within 30 days.
The daycare was granted its license to operate on Sept. 1, 2020, and can provide care for up to 98 children in seven different rooms.
This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 5:00 PM.
