Holly Oak Child Care Center

A licensed child care center in Wilmington, Delaware 19809

1511 Philadelphia Pike, Wilmington, Delaware 19809. (302) 798-7020.

Watch and the shortlist are kept with a free account, on every device. Your watch list. Delaware’s own record is on data.delaware.gov.

The short answer

Record last released by Delaware Office of Child Care Licensing on Oct 26, 2026.

No count Delaware’s list shows only visits that found violations
60 children, its licensed capacity

Each figure’s source sits beside it, in its section below.

What these words mean4

Inspection (survey): A visit by state inspectors, often unannounced, who check a place against the rules it must meet. For nursing homes and other places Medicare pays, CMS calls these visits surveys: a standard survey of a nursing home comes at least every 15 months, and a complaint survey whenever a complaint calls for one. Source: CMS; 42 CFR 488.308.
Deficiency, citation, violation: What inspectors write up when a place didn’t meet a rule: the rule, what they saw, and when. CMS calls it a deficiency; states may say citation or violation. It is the inspectors’ finding, not a court’s, and the place is usually asked for a plan to correct it. Source: CMS, statement of deficiencies (Form CMS-2567); each state’s licensing agency.
Licence status: Whether the state’s licence lets the place operate now, in the state’s own words: licensed, on probation (allowed to keep operating on conditions, after problems), provisional, pending or expired. Source: Each state’s licensing agency.
Capacity: The most people the licence or certification lets the place care for at once: residents, children, beds or apartments, as the state counts them. It isn’t how many are there now. Source: Each state’s licensing agency.

What did inspectors find?

Delaware’s list shows only the visits that found violations, so a zero can’t be read either way: this provider may have had visits that found none, or no visit at all. No count is shown.

Delaware Office of Child Care Licensing, Child Care Licensing Compliance Review Information. Released Oct 26, 2026. Updated daily.

Is it licensed?

Licensed Child Care Center.
Ages served, in Delaware’s words: 6 weeks through 10 years.
Delaware lists it as: Nonprofit.
Licence number 381418.
Capacity: 60 children.

Delaware Office of Child Care Licensing, Licensed Child Care Providers and Facilities. Released Oct 26, 2026. Updated daily.

Has Delaware acted against it?

3 complaint investigations in the last three years. Results, in Delaware’s words: Substantiated (3).

Delaware Office of Child Care Licensing, Child Care Licensing Complaint Reviews and Licensed Child Care Providers and Facilities. Released Oct 26, 2026. Updated daily.

On record, newest first
Date	What	Detail
Jul 2, 2024	OCCL Standards Complaint: Substantiated	On June 10, 2024, a complaint was called into the Child Abuse and Neglect Report Line and accepted for investigation by the Institutional Abuse Unit (IAU). The Office of Child Care Licensing (OCCL) received the complaint on June 10, 2024, and accepted it for investigation regarding allegations of improper discipline, improper staff-to-child ratios, not notifying OCCL of injuries that required medical or dental attention, Staff #1 vaping in front of the children, and not meeting the needs of the child due to dietary restrictions. On June 21, 2024, OCCL received notification from IAU stating the documentation received from OCCL did not have enough evidence supporting the allegations of abuse for IAU to continue their investigation. OCCL s investigation began on June 11, 2024, and ended on June 27, 2024. The allegations of improper discipline and Staff #1 vaping in front of the children were investigated in Case #1527075. The allegation of improper staff-to-child ratios is substantiated because the attendance records for March 2024 were reviewed and all classrooms did not maintain the correct staff-to-child ratios 98 times during this month. Reviewing the attendance records showed the center is not accurately documenting the attendance of staff members or children. OCCL also received a video documenting 14 infants and one-year-olds in the classroom with two staff members. This exceeds the maximum group size for both age groups. The allegation of not notifying OCCL of injuries that required medical or dental attention is substantiated because OCCL received documentation showing the administrator knew the injuries sustained by Child #4 and Child #5 required stitches and the injuries were not reported to OCCL. There is no evidence to substantiate the allegation that the center did not meet the needs of the child due to dietary restrictions because the staff members interviewed did not have consistent statements and the documentation the families provided showed conversati ons between the families and staff members stating they were willing to provide the accommodations. However, the documentation that was provided did demonstrate a lack of communication between the staff members and the administrator.
Jul 1, 2024	OCCL Standards Complaint: Substantiated	Between May 20, 2024, and June 3, 2024, nine complaints regarding Holly Oak Child Care Center, located at 1511 Philadelphia Pike, Wilmington, DE 19809, were received by the Office of Child Care Licensing (OCCL). OCCL cannot legally disclose if a complaint was also received or investigated by any other agency. OCCL investigations of regulatory non-compliance begin when clearance from other agencies, when applicable, has been received. Allegations included improper discipline, failure to report suspected child abuse or neglect, not notifying OCCL of a change in administrator, not following DELACARE meal requirements, diapering procedure, staff vaping while caring for children, not being truthful when providing information to parents or OCCL, sanitation of the facility, lack of supervision, administrator not present for the required number of hours, policy for handling complaints by parents, and not reporting an incident involving a child to parents. This complaint is substantiated for improper discipline because four staff members interviewed who were working in the infant and toddler areas stated they observed a staff member using improper discipline with children. Five staff members stated they had not observed staff members using improper discipline with children, but they were not assigned to work on the same floor as the infant and toddler rooms at the time of these allegations. This complaint is substantiated for lack of supervision because based on staff interviews, staff would walk out of the classrooms at nap time to prepare snack or talk, leaving children unsupervised in the classrooms. This complaint is substantiated for failure to report suspected child abuse or neglect because all staff members who stated they were concerned about possible child abuse or neglect in the center failed to report those concerns directly to the Child Abuse and Neglect Report Line. This complaint is substantiated for not notifying OCCL of a change in administrator because the f ormer administrator resigned more than a month before OCCL was notified of the change at an unannounced complaint visit. This complaint is substantiated for not following DELACARE meal requirements because based on documentation, snacks on four out of five days did not contain the required components. Lunch on two out of 10 days did not contain the required components. This complaint is substantiated for not following diapering procedures because based on staff interviews, a majority of staff stated diapers had either not been checked or not been changed as frequently as required. This complaint is substantiated for sanitation of the facility based on staff interviews and observations of the facility. Broken floor tiles were observed in the kitchen, ceiling tiles were missing in a room, a room divider was in disrepair, one bathroom had a buildup of dust in the vent as well as damaged cabinets, and one bathroom had broken paper towel and toilet paper holders on the floor. This complaint is substantiated for the administrator not being present for the required number of hours because when requested, the administrator s attendance records could not be produced. This complaint is substantiated for not reporting an incident involving a child to parents because according to staff interviews and documentation reviewed, serious injuries or potentially serious injuries involving a child s face or head were not documented as having been immediately reported to parents at the time of the incident. There is no evidence to substantiate staff vaping while caring for children because based on staff interviews, the majority of staff stated they had not seen staff vaping while children were present. There is no evidence to substantiate not being truthful when providing information to parents or OCCL because based on staff interviews, the majority of staff members stated they had been truthful when providing information to parents. There is no evidence to substantiate not followi ng the policy for handling complaints by parents because based on staff interviews, all staff stated parent complaints would either be handled by the teacher or the administrator, but there was no instance to support instances where they thought complaints were not handled appropriately. Additional concerns observed during the on-site complaint investigation were insufficient staffing as there was no staff to answer the phone or front door at the time of an attempted unannounced visit, and having staff start employment before being fingerprinted and determined eligible or provisionally eligible. According to documentation received, six staff members who were involved in this investigation were allowed to start employment before being fingerprinted and determined eligible or provisionally eligible.
Jun 6, 2024	OCCL Standards Complaint: Substantiated	On May 17, 2024, the Office of Child Care Licensing (OCCL) received a complaint regarding not following proper diapering procedures, staff using cell phones while responsible for caring for children, and insufficient interaction with infants and toddlers. An investigation was conducted on May 20, 2024. This complaint is substantiated for not following diapering procedures because according to staff interviews and documentation received, two staff members were not changing wet or soiled diapers when needed. This complaint is substantiated for staff using cell phones while responsible for caring for children because according to staff interviews, two staff members were frequently on their phones and taking personal phone calls while caring for children. This complaint is substantiated for insufficient interaction with infants and toddlers because according to staff interviews and documentation received, there were multiple parent and staff complaints about two staff members not engaging or interacting with the infants and toddlers. These two staff members had their employment terminated on May 17, 2024.

Who does the caring?

Delaware doesn’t publish staffing levels for individual providers.

Who owns it?

Delaware’s open data doesn’t list owners.

How is it rated?

No facility injuries reported. No facility deaths reported.

Delaware Office of Child Care Licensing, Licensed Child Care Providers and Facilities. Released Oct 26, 2026. Updated daily.

How does it compare nearby?

Not compared: Delaware’s list shows only the visits that found violations, so this record has no count to compare.

Delaware Office of Child Care Licensing, Child Care Licensing Compliance Review Information. Released Oct 26, 2026. Updated daily.

12 compared
Place	Violations cited in the last three years
Victoria Burns	Not given
Tressa Clemow DBA Love Bug Lane Learning Academy, LLC	Not given
Destined for Greatness Learning Center IV Inc.	Not given
Leon Dozier	Not given
Rebecca Kalbach	Not given
Bellevue Learning Center	Not given
Covenant Preschool and Childcare	Not given
Holly Oak Child Care Center This child care provider	Not compared
Shari Clarke	Not given
YMCA of Delaware / Mt Pleasant	Not given
The Learning Center at Calvary	Not given
Doreen Wells	Not given

What the record doesn’t say

Delaware doesn’t grade violations by severity, so read what was cited.
Delaware’s open data lists a visit only when a violation was cited there, so visits that found nothing aren’t shown.
Delaware publishes five years of reviews and complaints; this page shows the last three.
Delaware doesn’t publish staffing levels or owners for individual providers.
Delaware lists only the visits that found violations, so a provider with none listed may not have been visited at all: no count of violations is used to headline, filter or compare its providers.

Sources

Delaware Office of Child Care Licensing, Licensed Child Care Providers and Facilities (iuzd-3dbt).

Released Oct 26, 2026 and checked Oct 27, 2026. Updated daily. Public Domain.
Delaware Office of Child Care Licensing, Child Care Licensing Compliance Review Information (wb83-pkcv).

Released Oct 26, 2026 and checked Oct 27, 2026. Updated daily. Public Domain.
Delaware Office of Child Care Licensing, Child Care Licensing Complaint Reviews (pnbd-85r6).

Released Oct 26, 2026 and checked Oct 27, 2026. Updated daily. Public Domain.

If you believe something here is wrong, a correction starts with the agency whose record this copies: Delaware Office of Child Care Licensing. Delaware’s own record is on data.delaware.gov. If Hearth Record copied something wrongly, it will fix it and log the correction publicly, with its date: how corrections work.

This copy of the record was made on Oct 27, 2026.

From the provider

The public record above comes first. Anything the provider adds will appear here, below it, and say who wrote it.

Replies

None. Replies aren’t open yet. When they open, the provider will be able to answer any finding for free, and the reply will show beside that finding, unedited and dated.

Paid listing

None. Paid listings aren’t open yet. When they open, anything paid for will say “Paid by the provider”, and paying will never change a finding, a rating or the order of results.