TCC abruptly closed its child care center, laboratory school. Investigations are ongoing

Tarrant County College’s child care center and laboratory school for students on its Northeast Campus in Hurst abruptly closed recently amid state and local investigations. After parents have voiced their confusion over the decision in recent weeks, Chancellor Elva LeBlanc says she acknowledges the frustrations that were caused by the closure but described it as a necessary decision.

TCC’s Children’s Center Laboratory School shut its doors on Oct. 11 after college officials gave parents only a few days’ notice of the decision. Parents said they were told verbally about the closure on Oct. 8, and then received a letter from LeBlanc on Oct. 9 reiterating it. LeBlanc added that college officials also would be “taking appropriate personnel actions,” apologized for the inconveniences caused by the abrupt closure, and stated the college would be workshopping its approach to early childhood education. The decision came within two weeks of the Children’s Center announcing the celebration of its 50th anniversary.

“As a result of the information brought to our attention, it is clear that some operations do not align with the standards of respect, care and professionalism that TCC demands. This is deeply concerning and will be addressed,” LeBlanc wrote. “We intend to re-envision our approach to early education, re-evaluate the purpose of a laboratory school, and restructure our preparations for early childhood professionals to meet job demand. An advisory group will help inform our efforts.”

Parents Jenny Zheng and Jason Dziuk say an Oct. 4 incident involving their son was being cited as the reason for the college to close down the center. At a college Board of Trustees meeting on Oct. 17, LeBlanc said information brought to the college’s attention on that same date led to the decision. Board members also went into a closed session to discuss personnel matters related to the Children’s Center but took no action when they returned to the meeting.

Dziuk and Zheng push back on the notion that the early October occurrence led to the school closing because a state investigation had barely begun when college officials announced the closure. On the night of Monday, Oct. 7, the same day Dziuk was shown footage of the incident by college police, he and Zheng got a call from the Department of Family and Protective Services saying an investigator was assigned to review the incident. It was the following day, Oct. 8, when parents were told by college leadership that the closure was happening in a few days.

“That was before the investigation by the state had even started. They had assigned someone just the night before… They ripped everything — these kids’ entire world away (and) turned 20 families’ lives completely upside down,” Dziuk said.

Additionally, Zheng and Dziuk said the incident was exaggerated when described by Children’s Center staff in a written incident report.

According to the report provided to the Star-Telegram by Zheng and Dziuk, the couple’s son was lying on a cot during naptime when a teacher told him to stop making noise, and then pulled his cot from under him, “causing him to fall on the floor.” Zheng and Dziuk disputed that their son was lying on a cot and said he was lying on a mat, adding that it was an exaggeration to say he had fallen.

“He was laying on his stomach and tapping his toe boxes of his shoes against the floor, so not loud by no means. But the teacher did a zero tolerance approach to it, and she got upset with him (and) seemed to visibly lose her temper. She pulled his mat out from under him,” Dziuk said.

The report then said the teacher told the couple’s son again to stop making noise, and then “grabbed his arm and pulled him across the carpet to a different area” before holding the child’s arms “for an extended amount of time until he cried.” Zheng and Dziuk said the video shows their son was moved to the teacher’s desk area after being placed on his butt, and the teacher held his forearms in a similar manner to “when you see a couple holding hands right in front of their faces.” They also said their son did not cry.

“It doesn’t seem like he recalled any of it, and he doesn’t seem like he was bothered or troubled or anything,” Zheng said.

Zheng and Dziuk say the several positive experiences their son and family have had during their time at the Children’s Center from last school year and the beginning of this school year outweighed this incident. So much so that the couple has been advocating for the Children’s Center to reopen by starting an online petition and canvassing on various campuses.

“It was, hands down, the best of seven schools that we have attended full or part time (for) our boys. It was the most academic, and we were happy to be putting in 2½ hours of driving time per day to get our boys to attend,” Dziuk said.

Dziuk said he was told by a detective with the college police department that they were not planning to take action on the incident. Police asked if Dziuk and Zheng wanted to press charges, which the couple said they did not. LeBlanc told the Star-Telegram the college police department’s investigation was still ongoing.

Salina Sunga, a parent who had two children who attended the Children’s Center, described the staff as “family away from family” and said getting your child placed there was “like the lottery.”

Sunga was among parents who were skeptical of the reasons behind the closure. She was concerned about the opening of two other child care centers on other TCC campuses, and the possibility of a private entity opening up another operation at the Northwest Campus.

Child Care Associates, one of the largest child development programs in North Texas, has partnered with TCC to open two centers at the college’s South and Northwest campuses in 2025. Kara Waddell, CEO and president of Child Care Associates, declined to comment, stating she had not been in contact with TCC officials. LeBlanc said there’s no connection between the Children’s Center closing and the two pending child care centers coming to fruition.

Sunga said she’s frustrated by the vague explanations behind what happened.

“The program or Children’s Center no longer met the standards of TCC. Well, what standard did they not meet up to? What was missing? Why not fix it?” Sunga said.

‘None of this was taken lightly,’ says chancellor

In a phone call with the Star-Telegram, LeBlanc said the closure was unfortunate, and she felt badly for the impacted families as a mother and grandmother herself. She noted that parents were provided with a list of other child care centers in the area and were reimbursed for their October payments.

“None of this was taken lightly. Everything was taken very, very, seriously,” she said.

There was more than one incident that led to the closure, she said, with another one happening at the end of May. It appeared to be a one-time personnel issue that was handled at the time.

“When we had an incident again a few months later, that along with other information that came to our attention, prompted that we needed to look at this more closely. There were some serious red flags that we needed to look at, which led to shutting it down,” LeBlanc said.

When asked if she made the decision to close it, LeBlanc said she engaged several of her staff members, including the interim president of the Northeast Campus and the vice president of academic affairs, to review the information they were given, and they collectively agreed to close the Children’s Center.

“The focus of the laboratory school is for the adult students who want to be professional child care providers or early childhood teachers (to learn) how to interact and work with young children. As a result of that, the laboratory school is closed two months during the summer, a week at Thanksgiving, two to three weeks during the winter holiday, a week in the spring, several Mondays during the academic year. The families knew up front that they needed alternatives,” LeBlanc said.

The students who worked at the Children’s Center and school as part of their curriculum pivoted to child care centers off campus, which have been traditionally utilized alongside the Children’s Center by Tarrant County College students enrolled in the child development program, LeBlanc said.

For the teachers, Dziuk said there was “no pay, no severance, no relocation, no placement, no anything.” When asked about what happened to the Children’s Center staff, LeBlanc said she was unable to comment on personnel matters.

In LeBlanc’s Oct. 9 letter to parents, she said the closure would allow the college to reassess how it approaches early childhood education, “re-evaluate the purpose of a laboratory school, and restructure our preparations for early childhood professionals to meet job demand.

She added that an advisory group would contribute to this initiative and told the Star-Telegram she and her staff are still in the “due diligence” process of choosing members for it.

Investigations

There are a few ongoing investigations into the Children’s Center being conducted by the Department of Family and Protective Services, Tarrant County College Police Department and an internal investigation by the college’s human resources department, according to LeBlanc.

The involvement of Texas Health and Human Services Commission — which oversees child care licensing and standards — and the Department of Family and Protective Services — which investigates reports of abuse or neglect at child care operations — appears to overlap.

The center’s public inspection records on HHSC’s website show four citations dated on Oct. 8, which included notes stating:

• “A child was forced to sleep by the caregiver” who inappropriately disciplined the child.

• “Director did not ensure that employees comply with the standard, a second incident regarding inappropriate discipline occurred in period of 4 months.”

• “It was observed a caregiver pulling a child by the arm as redirection.”

• “A caregiver did not demonstrate competency and self-control when redirecting a child.”

The state standards connected to these notes and observations were found to be “deficient” through a DFPS investigation, according to the records. A DFPS spokesperson told the Star-Telegram that the agency sends its findings from investigations of child care operations to HHSC. A HHSC spokesperson said the agency had received DFPS’ findings related to an incident “reported on or around Oct. 8.”

“HHSC’s findings, as a result from the DFPS investigation, are pending and will be posted to our website when it is final,” according to the spokesperson, who added that there are no other active HHSC investigations at the center.

Zheng and Dziuk said they were in contact with an investigator from DFPS, who told them notification of the closure of the investigation was being delivered by mail soon.

In regards to the college notifying state officials of the closure of the Children’s Center, a HHSC spokesperson confirmed the college notified them on Oct. 8 that they were “voluntarily ceasing operations and closed on Oct. 11, 2024.”