Clayton dad urges parents to check up on day cares after learning of state violations at his son's

Parents research day care centers for weeks - even months - before choosing one to trust with their children. A Clayton father said they need to be just as vigilant once the children start going there.

Posted 10:50 p.m. Nov 15, 2019 — Updated 1:26 a.m. Nov 16, 2019

Adam Owens

, WRAL anchor/reporter

CLAYTON, N.C. — Parents research day care centers for weeks – even months – before choosing one to trust with their children. A Clayton father said they need to be just as vigilant once the children start going there.

Franklin Smith said he was shocked to learn what state inspectors found in a surprise visit to his son's day care center this month.

Inspectors visited Rainbow Child Care Center, which is owned by KinderCare, on Nov. 6, and they reported seeing a worker grab or jerk a child and an employee yell in a child’s face and kick a cot a child was on.

The report also shows children were repeatedly placed in a "cozy corner" for a half hour or more due to challenging behaviors.

"We just got wind of all of this. None of this was ever sent home to us," Smith said Friday. "When all of this came to light with the violations, no parent was ever made aware of – nothing was ever sent home, no emails."

In a statement to WRAL News, KinderCare Education LLC said nothing is more important than the safety of children.

"Since these issues were raised earlier this year, the employees involved are no longer employed by KinderCare. Each of these issues has already been addressed, and the center is under new management as of this month," the statement said.

Smith said that, when his oldest son attended the same day care center, he received some information, but he said he now wishes he had asked more questions.

"We had accident reports, you know, kid busts his lip, kid bumps his head," he said. "Now I am, like, wondering, those accident reports, what were they really?

He said he is considering moving his youngest son to a different facility and urged other parents to ask more questions of their day care providers.

“When you get an incident report and your child gets hurt, just look into it," he said. "Find out. Don’t always trust what somebody tells you just from a report."

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