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Kid Care Report: Large Catholic child care center receives most serious violation during inspection

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Every week Action News Jax investigates local child care centers to show you how they measure up to state guidelines. In this week’s Kid Care Report, Action News Jax anchor Letisha Bereola spoke to the head of a large Catholic child care center about its class 1 violation. According to state guidelines, a class 1 is the most serious violation and could result in death or serious harm to a child.

Assumption Early Childhood Learning Center is on the campus of Assumption Catholic School and Church in St. Nicholas.

It’s responsible for more than 120 students on any given day.

During a recent state inspection from the Department of Children and Families it received a class one violation because the report said a staff member was working without a valid state background check on file.

Bereola spoke to Deacon Scott Conway, the Superintendent of Schools about the violation. He said the violation is accurate—and it’s connected to a gap in employment.

“What happened with the class 1 violation, the inspector said an unscreened individual was left alone with children?” Bereola asked.

“There’s a 90-day window in which if they have not been employed by us, you have to rescreen them and we failed to rescreen them,” Conway said.

Conway did point out the dioceses does its own state and national criminal background checks for employees and that never expired for this staff member.

The worker was rescreened for the state background check and is back on the job.

An inspector also gave the center a class 2 violation, which can pose a risk to the health and safety of a child, according to DCF.

The report said a child was placed in a crib with something that could pose a strangulation risk.

The center received another class 2 violation for a missing background check for another employee. Conway told Bereola it was a paperwork issue and the staff member was back to work that same day.

The next day care in this week’s Kid Care Report is Mariya’s Learning Center off Edgewood Avenue.

It received a class 2 violation for the infant room being out of ratio -- too many kids and not enough staff.

The issue was corrected on the spot. The director didn’t want to give an interview but said her last four inspections were clean. We verified that was accurate.