DHS report shows day care’s past issues with van alarms

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A report from the Arkansas Department of Human Services’ Division of Child Care and Early Childhood Education shows a day care service in Arkansas has had issues with some of its life-saving alarm systems meant to prevent children from being left in its vans during the summer heat. According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the report showed Ascent Children’s Health Services had five locations, including Mountain Home, where alarms in some of its vans were found inoperable, disabled or otherwise flawed.

The report given to the newspaper dates back from 2015 to early this month. In February, a licensing specialist found the alarms on all of Mountain Home facility’s vans were disabled. Arkansas DHS said the local location was to add an extra staff member to walk through the vans and verify all children have exited the van in addition to the driver and the director or their designee. Ascent’s Mountain Home location was later inspected in June by DHS, and according to its report, one bus has an alarm that will not work. The bus has been used as an extra when one of the regular buses is out of service, but it can’t be used to transport children until the alarm is fixed.

Ascent’s issues were brought to attention after a five-year-old child died in June after being left in a van from its West Memphis facility. According to DHS, the alarm system was working on that bus, but staff did not follow protocol in checking the van to make sure all children exited. The West Memphis Police Department says the child was left in the van for eight hours as the temperatures inside climbed to 141 degrees. Ascent’s West Memphis location has since been put on one year of probation.

The DHS report also shows past problems with van alarms at the locations in Batesville, Trumann and Arkadelphia.

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