Day care center put on probation

A North Little Rock day care where a child was left unattended Monday, resulting in the firing of two staff members, has been placed on probation, the Arkansas Department of Human Services said.

The probationary provisional license — which means there will be additional monitoring at the Ascent Children’s Health Services location — is among the first steps in addressing that incident as well as another reported there June 28, said Amy Webb, a spokesman for the department.

“Two serious incidents that close together raised concerns for us,” Webb said. “We know the facility understands the significance of the issue.”

The Department of Human Services will work with the day care to provide workers with training as part of its efforts to ensure that the facility is in compliance with state laws and regulations, according to Webb.

The Ascent facility is the second within the company in recent months to be placed on a one-year probation.

After the June death of a 5-year-old boy at an Ascent location in West Memphis, that operation was also put on probationary status.

The child was reportedly left unattended inside a 15-passenger van for eight hours June 12, when the temperature reached a high of 88. Temperatures inside the van were said to have reached around 140 degrees.

Previous incidents at the North Little Rock location, according to documents released Wednesday, included the transportation of a child in a van with a broken window and the transportation of a child in a van with a door that did not shut properly.

State Rep. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, serves as chief executive of Ascent, which has 10 locations in Arkansas.

Phone calls to Sullivan and the Ascent day care in North Little Rock went unanswered Thursday evening.