The Gardner School of Arlington

“The operational responsibilities of the licensee shall include ensuring that the center’s activities, services, and facilities are maintained in compliance with these standards, the center’s own policies and procedures that are required by these standards, and the terms of the current license issued by the department. The centers own policy for supervision of children stated that staff must conduct a name-to-face when crossing any threshold, exiting/entering classrooms, playgrounds. Staff # 2 did not follow the center’s own policy and procedure for transitioning. On September 29, 2026 in the late afternoon, staff did not use name to face as they were crossing the threshold to exit the play space. Child #1, (23 months) was left in the glassed in play space as the rest of the children and staff #1 and #2 had exited the area. Another staff was waiting with her children to enter the play space when she observed child #1 left in the area. According to the video recording, the child was out of sound supervision for 18 seconds.”

“The operational responsibilities of the licensee shall include ensuring that the center’s activities, services, and facilities are maintained in compliance with these standards, the center’s own policies and procedures that are required by these standards. The centers policy for direct supervision of children says that staff use the name-to-face attendance or Brightwheel to document transition from one location (classroom-playground) to another and when transitioning in the morning and afternoon. Staff #1 did not follow the center’s own policy and procedure for transitioning. On July 27th around 4:10 pm staff did not use the name-to-face attendance while transitioning toddlers from one classroom to another classroom. Child #1, 17 months was left behind in Discovery A toddler classroom while staff #1 transitioned 3 other toddlers to Discovery B toddler classroom. The child is believed to be left alone for about 1 1/2 minutes.”

“The center shall consult the local department of health if there is a question about the communicability of a disease. The center failed to consult with the department of health when a communicable disease broke out in the school. On 7/1/2026 a notification was emailed to parents there was positive confirmation of a communicable disease in the infant room. On 7/2 another infant was confirmed. The morning of 7/6, 4 cases were confirmed. The Director was told by another agency to contact the department of health. By the end of day on 7/6 there were 6 confirmed cases. The director contacted the department of health around 3:00 pm on 7/6/2026 to report the communicable disease. As of 7/14/26 around 11:00 am there have been 12 cases of the communicable disease affecting both the infant and toddler classes.”

“The following actions or threats thereof are forbidden: forcing of food. Staff #2, #3 and #5 all said they observed staff #1 force feed the infants, saying she holds the infants close to her body, puts the bottle to their mouth as the infant’s head is moving back and forth. She would hold the infant’s free arm so they can’t swat the bottle away. Afterwards many of the infants would throw up. During an interview the witnesses demonstrated how staff #1 would force feed the infants. The interviews from staff #2, #3 and #5 were confirmed by video footage. The video dated 6/2/2026 around 8:10 am shows staff #1 feeding a bottle to an infant in the highchair. The infant is seen moving their head back and forth and pushing the bottle away with their hand. The staff then takes the infants left hand and holds while continuing to feed the infant, while their head is still seen moving back and forth until the bottle is finished. On this same day you see staff #1 cleaning up throw up from 2 different infants. On 6/17/2026 the video shows staff #1 feeding an infant sitting in the chair, then they move to the rocking chair which is out of the camera’s view. Seconds later you see staff #1 place the infant on the floor because the baby had thrown up while she is holding her arms out walking across the room. Staff #1 goes to the cabinet, pulling out fresh clothes while another staff changes the baby and cleans up the floor. Staff #1 is seen leaving the classroom, returning with a different top.”

“Bottle fed infants who cannot hold their own bottles shall be held when fed. Staff are not holding the infants while feeding them their bottles. On 7/2/2026 an infant between the ages of 6-9 months was observed being fed a bottle by staff #1 while the infant was sitting in a highchair. The video dated 6/2/2026 around 8:10 am shows 2 babies sitting in highchairs with staff #1 sitting in a chair between them holding a bottle in each of her hands, bottle feeding the two babies as they sit in the highchairs. One of the babies is seen leaning to the side as if they were too little for the highchair.”

“Around 11:13 am child #1 was standing on a stool in front of the sink, another child pulled on the child and the child lost their balance, hitting their lip on the sink. There was no staff to care for the 18 month child standing on the stool at the sink. Around 2:39 pm child #1 was sitting at the table with another child who was finishing snack, the other child scratched child #1 on the left cheek. One staff was diapering children and the other staff was picking up the cots from rest time. Neither of the staff were protecting the children as they were engaged in classroom tasks. Staff did not protect child #1 from ingesting foods that were highlighted on a menu from the parent as a food not to be served. The menu dated 6/27/2025 listed gold fish for an afternoon snack. The parent communication app showed that the child consumed the gold fish for afternoon snack.”