JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An Arlington day care may be shut down after multiple serious violations, including getting caught locking children in a closet.
Police are also investigating the day care separately as part of a child abuse investigation.
The Florida Department of Children and Families has notified Kidz N Kidz Academy that it plans to revoke the Merrill Road day care's license.
The day care has until April 12 to appeal the decision before the department shuts down the business.
"To put it in perspective, in Duval, Clay and Nassau counties over past five years, we’ve revoked or filed to revoke 14 licenses out of about 800 child care facilities that operate on those counties," DCF spokesman John Harrell said.
The notice from the department to the day care highlighted several Class 1 violations that led to its decision.
DOCUMENTS: DCF notice to Kidz N Kidz Academy | DCF inspection report for Kidz N Kidz Academy
A DCF investigator found that a 6-year-old boy left the day care without the staff's knowledge, made it a half-mile across the streets to an apartment complex and was on the verge of jumping into the community pool when he was found by a police officer and returned to the day care.
DCF said the staff's conduct met the definition of child neglect in Florida law. The incident drew two Class 1 violations against the facility.
"You’ve got a 6-year-old who got free from a facility and nearly went into a pool. That could’ve been a terrible situation," Harrell said. "Somehow this child got out. That’s totally unacceptable. We expect that the facilities are going to closely supervise the children in their care."
In another incident, five children were found hidden away in a closet during a DCF inspection.
"The director did not deny that the children were placed in the closet to be concealed from being counted in the total capacity number," the inspector said in the report.
According to Florida law, it is a misdemeanor to misrepresent to a DCF representative how many children are being cared for at a day care facility.
News4Jax has learned that another incident was reported to police at the facility last Friday.
A parent told police that her 4-year-old daughter had been locked in a storage closet by a teacher at the day care. The child showed the officer the closet at the back of a classroom where she had been kept.
The room contained paint cans and a water heater, the incident report said.
The mother, Zaecari Nelson, said she's outraged by the incident. She said her daughter pointed out the teachers who put her in the closet and started shaking.
"She's an animal to you, a paycheck to you, an addition to your write-off, how you pay your employees," Nelson said.
She said one of the teachers tried to intimidate her daughter by pulling out a chair, getting down to the girl's level and saying "When did I do that?"
Nelson recorded cellphone video when she confronted the owner about what her daughter had told her.
"For me, psychologically, I’m ruined. You don’t have trust. How can you have trust?" Nelson said. "People that are mandated by the state to provide services to students, but my child’s in a closet."
The day care staff said the girl has behavioral problems and has to be separated from the rest of the class, but denied putting her in a closet.
Parent Shawn John said he's never had any problems at the facility.
"That's a whole bunch of bull crap," he said. "My kids have been going there a couple years. They're good people. I can't say much about what happened, but I can say they wouldn't hurt no one there."
Kidz N Kidz Academy opened in 2010 and has had 19 violations in its DCF inspections since then.
In its last inspection report, Kidz N Kidz Academy had five violations: having too many children for the number of staff, inadequate supervision, no documentation of inspections of its vehicles, insufficient floor space for the number of children, and child neglect.
Representatives of the day care could not be reached for comment.