NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — A local mom is concerned about what happened to her daughter at daycare on Wednesday.
Kelly Bernard says her 3-year-old daughter came home with some kind of chemical stain on her clothes.
She says the daycare, Adventure Learning Child Care in New Port Richey, never called her to offer an explanation. Bernard showed ABC Action News pictures she snapped of her daughters clothes when they got home.
"I was so upset I was shaking. I was in tears I was so upset,” she said. "How do you put your trust in somebody to watch your children and they don’t even have the decency to notify you?”
Bernard says her mother picked her daughter up from daycare and at the time, she says employees mentioned a rash on the little girl's cheeks, but not the stains on her clothing.
"I don’t know it’s not sitting well with me at all,” she said.
Bernard tells us she called and left messages. She decided Wednesday night to file a report with the sheriff's office. Thursday, she says employees at the daycare returned her call to offer an explanation.
"She told me that she thinks the only explanation for this is that my daughter must have laid down on the changing table right after they wiped it off,” she said.
But she doesn’t believe that.
We looked into previous DCF violations at the facility — on June 7 of 2018, inspectors noted the daycare took kids to the aquatic center without permission slips and then left one of the children behind. The family of that child is now threatening to sue the daycare.
Documents also show the VPK didn’t have completed background checks for a teacher and were dinged on another day for cracked and potentially dangerous playground equipment.
"She will not be going back, definitely not,” said Bernard.
ABC Action News reached out to the director of the daycare to see if she wanted to share her side of the story, but because it's an ongoing investigation, she told us she’s being advised not to comment.
To check inspection reports for licensed child care facilities in the state, click here.
