DCFS: Drowned toddler’s baby sitter was told to get day-care license
The Aurora woman who was caring for 2-year-old Abigail Holland when the toddler drowned Tuesday was told she needed a license to run a home day-care center, a state official said Wednesday.
“She submitted the application on June 21 to be a licensed day-care home,” Illinois Department of Children and Family Services spokesman Kendall Marlowe said. “That application is still being reviewed and processed.”
Anyone seeking a day-care home license is not allowed to continue operating while the application is pending, he said. However, no charges have been filed against the 36-year-old woman while police wait for an autopsy to be completed on Abigail.
That is being done by the Kane County Coroner’s office, which did not return a phone call Wednesday.
DCFS provided the woman a license application after receiving a June 8 complaint claiming she was running an unlicensed day-care home in her home on the 2700 block of Squaw Valley Trail on the southeast side of Aurora, Marlowe said.
According to Aurora police, the woman was caring for seven children Tuesday when she noticed Abigail was missing and found the child in the water of the home’s above ground pool. Three of the baby sitter’s four biological children also were home at the time.
DCFS took the woman’s four biological children into custody Tuesday night and “placed them in the care of a relative,” Marlowe said.
The agency is investigating allegations of neglect against the deceased child and the woman’s own four children stemming from Abigail’s drowning, Marlowe said.