The Cazenovia Children’s House had its license suspended by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services on Thursday, Sept. 28, after a teacher failed to appropriately supervise a student.
The OCFS website stated on Sept. 28 that the CCH license was “suspended,” and the school was closed. On Friday, Sept. 29 that status had been changed to “pending revocation” and the school had been reopened.
“OCFS suspended and proposed to revoke the Cazenovia Children’s House license due to a failure of the Center to provide competent supervision,” said Monica Mahaffey, OCFS assistant commissioner for communications. “OCFS has allowed the program to re-open after it submitted a revised supervision plan, which OCFS will continue to monitor. The program paid a fine of $3,500.”
According to CCH attorney James P. Evans of Barclay Damon law firm in Syracuse, “the incident involved a teacher failing to exercise appropriate supervision of one student for about one minute. CCH suspended the teacher for this incident, in keeping with its policies and procedures.”
The CCH also issued a statement Friday about the incident, stating that CCH “notified state regulatory authorities of an occurrence on September 21, 2017. It was closed on September 28, 2017, while its representatives worked with State regulatory representatives. It was determined that the center could reopen on September 29, 2017. Cazenovia Children’s House is opened and will continue to operate with its normal operating hours, and it is in good standing with New York State.”
According to the OCFS website, a suspended license means “the child day care program has been closed by OCFS because there is evidence that the public health or a child’s safety or welfare is in imminent danger. A program which has been suspended must immediately stop operating. Suspension will continue until OCFS has determined that the condition requiring suspension has been corrected, until the child day care license or registration has been revoked, or until the program successfully challenges OCFS’s decision to suspend.”
Cazenovia Children’s House, located at 2757 Route 20 East in Cazenovia, is a not-for-profit organization that has been providing childcare and preschool education for families in Cazenovia since 1970. The school enrolls children from six weeks of age through twelve years or fifth grade.
