A Colorado licensing order issued September 25 described an alleged over-capacity situation at Noony’s Day Care in north Arvada after a child in the provider’s care was hospitalized with a severe brain injury. The order said the incident occurred shortly after September 16. The Colorado Department of Early Childhood later said it had not learned that the daycare’s owner, Ruba Sawakid, had been served with a child-abuse summons months earlier until September 17, according to 5280.
The order alleged that the daycare exceeded its licensed capacity on the day of the later incident. Its license allowed no more than two children younger than 18 months; the order said Sawakid was allegedly caring for four children younger than one and three more between 1 and 19 months old. The department suspended the license. The available account does not establish that the alleged capacity violation caused the child’s injuries.
A charge did not trigger an immediate licensing response
The summons stemmed from a separate February incident involving a 15-month-old girl. Her mother, Becky Emerson, told 5280 she found about 10 bite marks and bruises after pickup; the family sought urgent care and then an evaluation at Children’s Hospital Colorado for possible non-accidental trauma. Westminster police delivered Sawakid a summons on April 17 on a misdemeanor child-abuse charge. The department’s account, as reported by 5280, was that it did not learn of the summons until September.
Jefferson County’s investigation into the February incident was inconclusive, 5280 reported, and Sawakid was not added to Colorado’s child-abuse registry, TRAILS, as a result. The outlet also reported that several parents said they had not been told of the investigation or charge. The later hospitalization is a distinct event: a parent told 5280 the child suffered a severe traumatic brain injury with subdural and retinal hemorrhaging and remained hospitalized for more than a month. No charges related to that September incident had been filed at the time of the report.
The case raises questions about how information moves between child-protection investigators and child-care regulators, but the available facts do not establish precisely where or why notice was delayed. State rules require county child-protection services to report an investigation and its findings to child-care licensing within one working day, while state law restricts agencies from sharing details about specific child-welfare cases. Jefferson County Human Services said its investigators share findings with the state, according to 5280.
Separate systems, separate limits
The February investigation’s inconclusive result matters because TRAILS is not a record of every allegation or pending charge. Under the policy described in 5280, a person is added when investigators determine that abuse occurred. The Colorado Department of Early Childhood says staff may qualify to port background checks after receiving qualifying results for all required checks in the previous five years, subject to employment conditions. These rules describe screening procedures; they do not establish what any particular check showed in Sawakid’s case.
Colorado has also examined child-care safety in other settings, though those efforts do not establish a pattern in licensed daycare cases. The Department of Human Services said its Safe Child Care Task Force was formed in 2021 after infant deaths in unsafe, overcrowded, unlicensed child-care settings and produced recommendations for safety reforms. Those were different circumstances from the licensed Noony’s facility.
A 2014 review by the Colorado Office of the State Auditor found that all 40 sampled county child-welfare assessments from Fiscal Year 2013 were not completed timely or adequately. That audit concerned child-welfare assessments, not child-care licensing, and cannot establish what happened in the Noony’s case.
Few alternatives can raise the stakes for families
The Denver Post reported that a 2023 analysis estimated licensed child-care capacity in Colorado fell short by 75,302 seats for children under six whose parents were all working; its report put Denver’s median annual infant-care cost at nearly $25,000. Those statewide and local figures do not explain any family’s decision about Noony’s, but they show the constraints facing parents seeking care. Sawakid appeared in Jefferson County court October 29 for arraignment on the February charge after receiving a delay, and was scheduled to appear again January 7, 5280 reported.
