I would not ever recommend that these people be allowed to take care of children. June 2019, my then 23 month old came home with three bite marks on her shoulder and back. The welted bite marks were such that they had to be done from behind and most likely while she was face down on the ground and took days to fade. The staff did not tell us that day about the bite marks. I found them that night when I gave my daughter a bath. When I confronted Tonya, who is the owner of the business, about the bite marks, the only thing she would say is "Don't worry about it. That is age appropriate behavior." She assured me they would watch the situation and make sure it didn't happen again. At this time my two year old was not speaking. Over the next few months, she did not want to go to school, but the staff assured us she was not being bitten. Well September of 2019, she came home with yet another welted bite mark and the conversation was about the same with Tanya. Around late October or early November, she started to talk. At first when we'd ask her and her older sister how their day was she would always say at least good or bad. In early to mid December of 2019, the answers changed to good played with blocks or good played outside or bad with a consistent answer of , "Bad, Mikenna bit me." We obviously searched for any welted bite marks but couldn't find any. At this same time my two year old started playing a game with her sister of I'm going to chase you with my mouth wide open and if I catch you I'm going to bite you. Thank you KELC for this learned behavior. In March of 2020, I picked her up from school spoke with the teacher and signed an accident report from her cutting her face 10 days earlier. At no time did they mention that she was bitten yet again. On the way home we had the same conversation where she said she was bit and when I asked where she pointed to a welted bite mark on her arm.
The next day my wife dropped off my daughters to school and the teacher profusely apologized for stepping out of the room and her getting bitten. This being the third time and the fact that my two and half year old at this time was more trust worthy then Tonya, I called DHS to see what I could do as a parent. DHS said the only thing I could do because of child privacy laws was to file a complaint with DHS and they would investigate it and ensure that KELC was following the right protocol for a known biter. Part of the protocol is suppose to be that the child is never left alone with other children.
The day I made the DHS report, I went to KELC and asked for a copy of my children's inciTdent reports. Now once I did that, all of a sudden I got a phone call from Tonya asking if there was a problem and how she could fix it. Funny how she was interested in fixing a known problem that had been going on for 9 months, once I started getting paperwork together for DHS. The interesting thing about all of my children's incident reports is that the bottom half where they document that they told a parent about the incident the day it happens were all blank. In early March, two weeks before COVID stay at home order, DHS started their investigation and said it would take a few weeks, but I should pull my child out temporarily if I was afraid for my child until they could get corrective actions in place.
During this investigation Tonya then started calling and harassing my wife knowing that I had filed the report. At this time KELC offered all parents in an email the opportunity to keep their spot for $300 a month instead of full tuition. In April they failed to take the tuition out by autopay and then again in May. Multiple phone calls and emails were made in March and April with no response. Then in mid may when I left a message I was stopping by with a check, I immediately got an email from Tonya stating she had kicked my children out of KELC in April.
So here is the morale, if you have proof that they neglect children and then report it to DHS, Tonya will kick your kids out in retaliation. read more