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The Merit School at North Stafford (#34)

Inspection · 2025-05-08

Date
2025-05-08
Complaint Related
No
Licensing Inspector
Christina Jones
(540) 340-2672
SHSIA monitoring inspection of an approved subsidy vendor to determine compliance with current subsidy requirements regarding the health and safety of children and to promote quality standards for the children in their care.
No

Areas Reviewed

8VAC20-780 Administration
8VAC20-780 Staff Qualifications and Training.
8VAC20-780 Physical Plant.
8VAC20-780 Staffing and Supervision.
8VAC20-780 Programs.
8VAC20-780 Special Care Provisions and Emergencies
8VAC20-780 Special Services.
8VAC20-820 THE LICENSE.
8VAC20-770 Background Checks
20 Access to minor?s records
22.1 Early Childhood Care and Education
63.2 Child Abuse & Neglect

During the inspection, the inspector reviewed the areas listed above to include standards found out of compliance during the previous inspection. Unless otherwise noted as a violation within this inspection report, the provider was in compliance with the standards reviewed. If there were any serious injuries or fatalities related to a violation, the details will be included in the description of the violation.

Inspector Notes

An unannounced, on-site monitoring inspection was initiated and completed on 5/8/2025. The on-site inspection began at 10:20am and ended at 12:10pm. The inspector reviewed compliance in the areas listed above. There were 113 children present and 19 staff. The inspector reviewed 7 children?s records and 7 staff records on-site.

This inspection included documentation review, tour of the facility and interviews.

Information gathered during the inspection determined non-compliance with applicable standards or law, and violations are documented on the violation notice issued to the program.

Please complete the plan of correction (POC) and date to be corrected sections for each violation cited on the violation notice. Specify how the violation will be or has been corrected. Submit your POC within five (5) business days from today, which will be the close of business on 5/19/2025. A POC submitted after this date will not appear on the public website.

Violations

2
Standard 8VAC20-780-280-B
Hazardous substances such as cleaning materials shall be kept in a locked place using a safe locking method that prevents access by children.

1. In the Toddlers classroom, there was a spray bottle of sanitizer and a spray bottle of disinfectant in an unlocked upper cabinet.
2. In the Prep-A classroom there was a spray bottle of sanitizer and a spray bottle of disinfectant in an unlocked upper cabinet.
3. In the JK-A classroom there was a spray bottle of sanitizer and a spray bottle of disinfectant in an unlocked upper cabinet.
Plan of Correction: Corrected on site at the time of inspection. The upper cabinets are five feet from the floor and out of reach of the children. The teacher in the toddler classroom had just finished using the cleaning products and did not lock them back immediately. In the PREP and JK classrooms the slide lock was pushed partially into the lock, but not all of the way through to completely lock the cabinet. Additionally, the staff were all re-trained at the 5/15/25 staff meeting on the importance of keeping hazardous materials not only out of the reach of children, but fully locked as well.
Standard 8VAC20-780-420-E-3
Staff shall request at least annually parent confirmation that the required information in the child's record is up to date.

The record for Child A was overdue for an annual review with parent confirmation by 7 months.
Plan of Correction: The center reached out to the parent the day of the visit and by the end of the day of the licensing visit, 5/8/25 the annal update was completed. The parent had been sent the annual update on multiple occasions and the staff missed that this particular child?s parents had not updated the requested records.
View original record on Virginia Department of Social Services