A Maine Dept. of Health and Human Services investigation into the Boothbay YMCA Child Enrichment Facility early this year turned up a list of 17 licensing violations.
Since the infractions were discovered, the state officials say the YMCA has complied with all requirements and worked to correct the problems.
The DHHS entered into a consent agreement with the YMCA, which outlines several pages of requirements. If the Boothbay facility fails to comply with any single requirement of the agreement over the next 12 months, they will be issued a conditional license, which puts them at risk for losing their license if any other infractions are discovered.
Sometime toward the end of last year, DHHS received an anonymous complaint of potential abuse or neglect in the childcare center, said Jane Drake, an Assistant Division Director at DHHS.
On Dec. 15, DHHS conducted a routine licensing review of the center’s facility and practices. The routine inspection turned up “an extensive list of deficiencies,” Drake said. Those issues, in combination with the abuse complaint, led to DHHS conducting an investigation through their Out of Home Investigations Unit in January.
The infractions discovered at the YMCA include numerous uncovered electrical outlets, raw meat thawing on a counter, several reports of staff members leaving infants and toddlers unattended, reports of staff members yelling at infants and toddlers, and several reports that staff members “rough handle[d] children, and put children in time-out in a high chair, for excessive lengths of time, facing into a wall or door,” according to the consent agreement.
Ultimately, the investigator determined that there was no evidence of abuse or neglect, but the list of infractions was serious enough to warrant DHHS issuing the YMCA a conditional license.
“At first we weren’t going to appeal” the conditional license, said Meagan Hamblett, Membership, Marketing and Child Enrichment Director at the Boothbay YMCA.
Because the YMCA had never had any issues with abuse, and the investigation found no evidence of abuse, they contacted an attorney, who helped work out the terms of the consent agreement to avoid the conditional license.
No staff were fired as a result of the investigations, because “the staff involved had no prior issues and good evaluations,” Hamblett said.
Maddie Rideout, the YMCA’s child enrichment site coordinator and head pre-K teacher, said she’s been working with the state to develop and implement a plan of action to address the issues.
So far, no further problems have been discovered and the YMCA has remained in compliance with all state requirements, DHHS said.
The YMCA, as required by DHHS, sent a letter informing all parents of children in the program of the issues. In that letter, they told parents, “In December we had our mid-cycle review and a few things were not in compliance with the Licensing Rules and Regulations. Items include the temperature being set in one room one degree lower than required, some outlet covers missing and the cribs being a bit less than the 2 feet distance apart rule.”
Although not included in the letter, in addition to the temperature being one degree too low on Jan. 25, on Dec. 15, the temperature was found to be an unspecified number of degrees below the required temperature, according to the consent agreement.
Rideout and Hamblett said no parents have withdrawn their children from the program as a result of the infractions or consent agreement. Both said the program is working hard to correct the issues and improve the program.
The YMCA is a member of the Maine Roads to Quality program, which tracks, studies and rates childcare facilities. “As a result of the work we’ve done in response to this issue, we think we may move up a tier” in their ranking, Hamblett said.
