Agency May 'Strengthen Oversight' After Day Care Death

Channel 2 Action News has confirmed the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning is drafting an emergency rule change one week after the death of 2-year-old Jazmin Green.

With the makeshift memorial for Green growing by the day, the state is coming down hard on Marlos Magnificent Early Learning Center in Jonesboro. DECAL shut it down and assigned monitors to make sure it stays that way.

Last week, Green died after center workers left her in a hot van for hours following a field trip.

In an email Monday, a DECAL spokeswoman told Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Aaron Diamant, “In light of this incident, the Department is in the process of drafting an emergency rule change to strengthen center oversight regulating transportation of children.”

However, DECAL offered no explanation of what that emergency change might be.

Diamant went to see Georgia Child Care Association Director Carolyn Salvador for some insight.

“I think that they’re just going to go back and really do due diligence and look at that process to see if there’s really anything in place that they can do to sure-guard about children’s safety and transportation to make sure that they are keeping children as safe as possible,” Salvador explained.

However, Salvador noted there are already several transportation safeguards in place, which providers must follow. She said more rules might help prevent more deaths, but not necessarily.

“We need to make sure that they’re following them to protect children,” Salvador said. “We want to understand what went wrong in the process, and what DECAL means by those things.”

Meantime, the center’s owner, Marlo Fallings, her daughter Quantabia Hopkins and an assistant are charged in Green’s death. Court papers accuse them of falsifying transportation records that day.

Diamant stopped by Fallings’ home again for her side, but no one answered the door.