Noahs Ark Preschool and Parents Day Out

There were no playground checklists for this year available for review.

One of the classrooms did not have a schedule or lesson plan posted.

Several mats were not labeled with the children's names.

There were no fire drills or checks of the smoke detectors and fire extinguishers recorded for this year. This was corrected during the inspection when a fire drill was conducted and the smoke detectors and fire extinguishers were checked.

Two infants who were still on formula or breastmilk had feeding instructions that had not been updated since February.

One caregiver was missing 11 hours of training for the 2024 to 2025 training year, and two other caregivers were missing several of the required training topics.

There was medication stored at the operation for a child who no longer attends.

The children had only graham crackers and water for afternoon snack.

There was a slide and a swing on the infant playground that did not have any loose-fill or surfacing in the use zones. This was corrected when the equipment was removed from the playground.

Out of eight staff files reviewed, one did not have proof of education or a statement that she had attended orientation with an overview of the center's policy on abuse and neglect on file.

Out of six staff files reviewed, all of the caregivers were missing training in emergency preparedness and five of them were missing training in communicable diseases, food allergies, building and physical premises safety, and hazardous materials.

Childcare Weather Watch charts and information on abuse and neglect were posted in the classrooms; however, the parent handbook was missing policies for preventing and responding to abuse and neglect, the DFPS website and abuse/neglect hotline, criteria for when weather is too extreme for children to play outside, and a plan for physical activity to occur indoors when weather does not permit outdoor play.

It was found that the director was missing 19 out of the required 30 annual tranings hours.

A caregiver responsible for infants did not have the required annual safe sleep trainings.

During the investigation it was found that a caregiver was thumping some of the children as a form of correcting their behavior. Caregiver was let go and is no longer present at the preschool. Incident was self reported and appropriate forms of discipline were observed at the inspection.

During the inspection a caregiver washed hands in a sink that was being utilized for cleaning bottles. This was corrected during the inspection by the bottles being removed and the sink sanitized.

Based on the information gathered during the investigation it was found that the playground pea gravel was raked into a high pile that gave a child in care accessibility to a fence that the allowed the child's head to become entrapped between the bars. This was corrected during the inspection by the director distributing the pea gravel throughout the playground for a level height.