The Division of Child Care and Early Childhood Education with the state Department of Human Services opened an investigation into a northeast Arkansas daycare after a father called police on Monday and said the facility gave his 1-year-old son to the wrong person.
Marci Manley, a spokeswoman with the state Department of Human Services, confirmed Tuesday afternoon that the division received a complaint regarding the Jonesboro Montessori Academy on Stone Street.
"Child care licensing staff visited the center and there is an open licensing investigation ongoing," Manley said. "The center did terminate the involved staff member. Licensing staff will continue to monitor the situation as the investigation progresses."
The father of the 1-year-old involved in this incident told Jonesboro Police Department officers that he received a call from the daycare informing him that his child had been given to the wrong adult and then brought back to the center about 45 minutes later by the same person. He said the man who picked up the child was the grandfather of another toddler at the daycare with the same name.
Police said the caller didn't know the identity of the responsible adult at the daycare at the time the event took place. The father said he also didn't know the name of the man who had his child for 45 minutes.
An official who answered the phone at Jonesboro Montessori Academy Tuesday acknowledged the incident, but said nobody at the facility was available to speak about it at that time.