This story by Liberty Darr was first published in the Other Paper on April 3.
South Burlington child care center Little Beginnings Early Learning Center had its license degraded by the Vermont Department for Children and Families after it found the center in violation of several areas of state regulations.
Violations cited by the department include the program’s director allegedly grabbing at children to move them and slamming a child down on the toilet while they were being toilet trained; staff using obscene language and yelling in front of infants; and a staff member denying a child the rest of their lunch.
A DCF licenser who visited the center on March 12 and 18 reported hearing director Meghan Kimball and an unnamed staff member telling infants, “This is f—ing stupid;” Drink it or go back to bed;” “I don’t know what you want so you need to figure it out;” and “Stop your f—ing crying,” among other things.
On March 25, Kimball sent a letter to families of the center notifying them of the recent violations, telling parents she was unaware of the severity of the accusations before meeting with the state licenser that day.
She explained that she was outside of the room when the licenser observed the staff member swearing at the child and said she was listed in the violations due to her being in the building and “based on the business structure” of the center.
“I am also speaking with every staff member to make sure I have the knowledge of every incident if there were more involving any staff member in this building,” she wrote, noting the employee listed in the violations had been asked not to return to work until a solution could be found to ensure the behavior never happens again. “This employee may be terminated permanently,” she wrote.
A day later, Kimball notified families that the center would be closed for the remainder of the week due to “an unforeseen staffing shortage and circumstances out of her control.”
According to Janet McLaughlin, deputy commissioner of the Child Development Division, the state placed the program’s child care license into “provisional” status on March 25 with numerous safeguards and requirements, including limitations on staff that can work with children and disallowing enrollment of new children.
“For the staff members listed in the violations, one is not allowed to work with children without further training and the other may not work unsupervised without further training,” she wrote in a statement.
The DCF report includes corrective actions steps like creating program improvement plans that must include how staff will be trained and supervised.
According to one staff member who had been reporting incidents to the state, the violations came as a relief. The University of Vermont student and former staffer — who spoke on condition of anonymity — said she began reporting red flags after being with the center on and off for roughly three years. She resigned from her full-time position last week.
“Obviously, you form relationships with these children, and I wanted to stay and see them every day,” she said. “I also felt it was important for them to have a friendly and familiar face to see every day. And then when I started hearing things from the infant classroom is when I was like, ‘I really got to be there for these kids. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m going to figure it out.’”
She said several families she worked with in her classroom have taken their children out of the center and she has been helping watch some of the kids as families navigate what they will do next.
For other staffers, Little Beginnings Early Learning Center wasn’t just their job but also where several of them sent their own children for child care. One former employee, who also requested anonymity, said the loss of the job also meant the loss of child care, something that can be difficult to find in Vermont.
“Trying to find somewhere where I can be in the same center as my child has been hard,” she said. “I had reached out to a center who wasn’t going to have a spot for my child until almost January, and I don’t feel comfortable sending my child to a different center that I’m not working in, mainly because of these horror stories.”
It remains unclear whether the center opened this week, and Kimball did not respond to email requests for comment. Last week, the center was listed for sale on Facebook Marketplace for $20,000, although the post has since been taken down.
“I think a lot was swept under the rug and wasn’t fully told to us staff,” the former staff member said. “We put so much into that company at the same time and did so much for those families and those children.”
