By Shereen Siewert | Wausau Pilot & Review

A Wausau area daycare at risk of losing its license went months without conducting emergency drills, allowed unqualified staff to be left alone with children, repeatedly exceeded mandated attendance limits in classrooms and failed to file any required reports after a child was struck in the head with a clipboard, state records show.

These are among the more than 100 rule violations in a two and a half-year span documented at KinderCare, 5201 Alderson St., which ultimately led state officials last week to issue a license revocation letter to the center. As Wausau Pilot previously reported, state data posted publicly detail a wide range of violations at the center, which has a capacity of 115 children. According to state documents, licensing staff reported seeing areas of caked food on walls, floors littered with garbage and food, a child being fed breast milk from another family’s supply and children left unsupervised, among others.

In one instance observed by state regulators, a staff member held a child down and sprayed him in the face with water for not sleeping at nap time. The child cried himself to sleep.

The Department of Children and Families launched its most recent investigation on Dec. 6 and found 12 substantiated rule violations, from failing to complete mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect to maintaining improper staff-to-child ratios, among others. Investigators concluded that staff were forced to write in monthly emergency drill dates that did not actually happen, and were told to pencil in other staff’s names on the attendance record when they were out of ratio.

On Dec. 19. as part of the state investigation, two licensing specialists made an unannounced visit to KinderCare, where they observed the classrooms, reviewed files and interviewed staff, according to DCF.

The specialists documented a range of issues, including the discovery that two staff members worked as assistant child care teachers for six months but did not meet the qualifications to do so. In addition, they found that one staff member was terminated after hitting a child on the head with a clipboard – but the incident was never reported to Child Protective Services as required.

The center was notified Jan. 24 that the state sought to pull KinderCare’s license.

JamieDay Montgomery on Sunday issued a statement on behalf of KinderCare acknowledging the notice but insisting that the center would stay open.

“Thursday, we received notice from the state of a proposed licensing revocation,” Montgomery wrote. “However, we do have the right to appeal, and we will. While we work through the appeal process, our center will remain open, and we will continue to support our community of families with early childhood care and education.”

Read Wausau Pilot’s original reporting on the allegations and the state’s investigation at this link.