State regulators have suspended the license of a childcare center in Rutland affiliated with an evangelical church after finding serious violations that the state contends endangered the 13 children who attended.
In an October 9 letter to Sycamore Tree Child Care Center, which is part of Mission City Church, Janet McLaughlin, deputy commissioner of the Department for Children and Families, said that the state was taking immediate action after a regulator who visited earlier in the week found that the center had broken multiple licensing rules.
An October 10 licensing report obtained by Seven Days through a public records request shows that state visits to the program on October 8 and 9 turned up 13 violations, including mistreatment of children.
During the visits, the report states, the state discovered that seven to eight months earlier, a staff member had “tapped” an infant’s face with four fingers, leaving a red mark, after the infant bit the staff member on the heel. The incident was reported by the staff member to the program’s director, according to the report, but the staff member did not complete an incident report or inform the infant’s family, which is required in statute.
The licensor also overheard staff speaking to children in harsh tones and saying inappropriate things to them, including “I don’t want to hear it — you are done,” “If you don’t lay down, you will be sorry” and “You were running around, you hit yourself in the head. That’s your problem! Sit down!” Children were heard crying for their mothers after being reprimanded.
On another occasion, the licensor heard a staff member tell a child that she was going to throw away the child’s pacifier and blanket, the report states. When a toddler asked to wash their hands, a staff member was heard saying “Yes, pain in the ass, let’s go.” Ostensibly in response to the licensor’s visit, a staff member was overheard telling the center’s director in front of children: “Whoever turned us in, I’m going to punch in the head,” and “Like I said, whoever did it, I’m going to kill them.”
McLaughlin’s letter informed the center that it has 30 days to appeal the license suspension. It directs the center to remove all children in its care “immediately” and says that all state subsidies for families enrolled in the program will be stopped. It also leaves open the possibility of the Child Development Division revoking the center’s license.
Sycamore Tree began operating the program for children ages six weeks to 5 years in the fall of 2020 at Mission City Church’s Rutland location. The church also has outposts in Middlebury and Bennington.
The church’s website states that Sycamore Tree’s “values are centered on the teaching and practice of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” while its mission is “to demonstrate the truth of the life-giving gospel by providing a safe and nurturing environment where infants and toddlers will best grow and flourish physically, cognitively and emotionally.”
On its Facebook page, Mission City characterizes its churches as “Transformed Followers of Jesus who Develop & Deploy Disciples in Vermont.” A recent post touts a new initiative that enables parishioners to sponsor a child in India.
In an email to Seven Days, Mission City’s director of operations Tom Tench wrote that the church takes “full responsibility for the violations cited” and said it was “committed to addressing these matters with utmost urgency.”
“We are genuinely sorry for any worry, confusion or inconvenience this has caused the families involved,” Tench wrote. He said that Sycamore Tree Childcare Center would “cease all operations until further notice” and “resume operation only if we can get back to and maintain the original vision for this program — to meet a need in our community and share the message of hope that is the epicenter of who we are.”
It is rare for the state to take such extreme measures against a childcare program, but not unheard of. In November 2024, Vermont revoked the license of Little Saplings Preschool in Morrisville after families accused its owner, Scott Breveleri, of defrauding them out of tens of thousands of dollars.
Though the state maintains a database called Bright Futures Information System with information and regulatory reports pertaining to licensed childcare programs, the records aren’t searchable when a program’s license is suspended or revoked. In a statement to Seven Days, McLaughlin said that the state is in the process of getting a new system that will enable the public to view records of programs that have lost their licenses.