Raleigh child care worker charged with fracturing child's leg, court records say

A Raleigh child care worker charged with child abuse appeared in court on Thursday. 

Ashley Nicole Taris, 24, is charged with felony neglect child abuse with serious bodily injury stemming from an incident in August at KinderCare Day Care Center, according to an arrest warrant. 

The warrant said a child accused Taris, who was his teacher at the time, of an injury "while placing (them) in the 'criss-cross applesauce' position," resulting in a fracture to their lower leg.

Taris was arrested on Tuesday, according to court records. She has no bond and is not allowed to have contact with the victim.

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The assistant district attorney present on Thursday said the child's "injury is a spinal fracture to his tibia, which is consistent with what he's describing in his disclosure."

"When the defendant was interviewed, she said that she was doing donkey kicks and fell on his leg. Our information is that his injury is not consistent with that happening," said the ADA.

The offense happened at the Mitchell Mill Road location where Taris was employed at the time of the alleged incident. 

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services' Division of Child Development and Early Education, which investigated the incident, described Taris as "aggressively" pulling the child by the lower leg, causing the child’s lower shinbone and ankle to fracture. 

WRAL News reached out to KinderCare's national office and received the following statement: 

At KinderCare, the safety and well-being of the children in our care is always our top priority. Ms. Taris is no longer a KinderCare employee. She has not worked in our center since October of 2025. When this incident occurred last summer we followed our safety protocols and immediately notified both the child’s family and the appropriate agencies.

Following guidance from state officials, Ms. Taris was briefly allowed to continue teaching in accordance with an approved safety plan. However, as is sometimes the case in investigations, licensing officials subsequently contacted us in October of 2025 and asked us to remove Ms. Taris from the classroom while they continued their investigation. We promptly placed her on administrative leave at that time, removing her from the center. Ms. Taris did not return to our center since being placed on administrative leave, and she is no longer a KinderCare employee.

Court documents show that she was issued a citation for misdemeanor child abuse for an incident occurring on Nov. 5. At the time, the citation also listed her employer as KinderCare. The Wake County Sheriff's Office said this involves the same incident, and the charge was later upgraded.

In a notice to Mitchell Mill Road KinderCare dated Jan. 15, the NCDHHS said it disqualified Taris from working in child care.

"Taris may not be employed by or seek to be employed by a child care facility, own or operate or seek to own or operate a child care facility, be a member of the household of a family child care home or facility located in a residence, be present in a child care facility when children are in care or participate in a subsidized child care program."

In January, Taris filed a civil complaint against the NCDHHS after receiving a written notification that disqualified her from providing child care. The written notice dated Nov. 20 was received by Taris nearly a month later. 

Taris stated via her complaint that she disagreed with the decision and sought to have it withdrawn. 

A judge delayed the civil case pending the outcome of Taris' child abuse charges.

Taris' next court date is April 30.

As a result of its investigation, NCDHHS issued administrative action against KinderCare, requiring the center to revise its behavior guidance policy with detailed steps to ensure appreciate care and treatment of children at all times.