Manitoba government investigating daycare after child left behind at playground
Play N' Learn Pre-School Centre ordered to halt all field trips until investigation is complete
The Manitoba government says it is investigating a Winnipeg daycare after one of the children in its care was left behind at the centre's playground this week.
Play N' Learn Pre-School Centre on Munroe Avenue confirmed that a young girl was accidentally left unsupervised at the playground after recess on Tuesday.
Two people found the child playing alone in a sandbox and returned her to the daycare. She was not harmed.
Daycares are licensed by Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care, which began investigating the incident right away.
"As part of the investigation staff went to the centre to obtain information regarding the incident," a provincial government spokesperson said in an email to CBC News Wednesday afternoon.
"The matter is still under investigation. Staff will continue to monitor the centre closely by conducting frequent, unannounced, drop-in inspections. The centre has been directed to halt all fieldtrips or similar outings until this investigation has been completed."
Two staff members had taken 16 children out to play just after 10 a.m. Tuesday, with all the children wearing distinct "pinnies" to make them easily identifiable from a distance, daycare director Patricia Olson told CBC News.
Just before 11 a.m., the group returned to the centre, she said.
"They were taking off the pinnies when a man came to the door and had this little girl in his arms and said, 'You left her at the park,'" Olson said. "We were shocked, because we were counting kids at this point."
The centre typically looks after 24 children a day and usually takes about 16 kids outside at a time, Olson said.
Olson said the daycare is conducting its own review of the incident to see what could have been done differently. As well, she said staff will reduce the size of outdoor play groups to ensure no child gets left behind.
"It will never happen again," she said.
Currently under provisional licence
It's not the first time that Play N' Learn has been in trouble with the province, as it has been subject to "on-going provisional licences" since April 2013.
The daycare currently has a provisional licence because it has not had two-thirds of their staff trained to the required classification level for early childhood educators, according to the province.
"Also, one of its newly hired staff needs to complete first aid and CPR training, submit an application for classification as a child care worker, and the facility needs to update their record of employees, to reflect the addition of this new staff," the province said.
The centre can address the training requirement by submitting a plan on how it will have the required number of staff upgraded to the proper classification level, or by hiring more trained early childhood educators, or a combination of the two.