Thomsen Learning Center in Ramona closed Monday after its licenses to operate a preschool and infant-care facility were revoked, and owner Pam Thomsen and Director Nicolle Daniels have been prohibited for life from working at facilities licensed by the California Department of Social Services, officials said.

The department adopted those orders, and another that denies Thomsen’s application for a school-age child-care center license, from a May 21 decision by administrative law judge Marion Vomhof, according to Scott Murray, a spokesman for the department. The orders went into effect Monday, Murray said.

Vomhof, who works with the state Office of Administrative Hearings, cited complaints about the center being over capacity, having unqualified teachers, improper teacher/child ratios and failing to maintain required documentation. The judge also pointed to an incident on Sept. 29, 2022 in which a 3-year-old girl fell from a bike at the center and suffered a broken arm.

According to testimony in a Department of Social Services hearing April 15-17, neither Thomsen nor Daniels, her daughter, notified the girl’s parents or confirmed that they had been notified promptly so medical care could be provided, the judge wrote.

“The repeated violations and the failure of respondents to either fully comprehend the necessity of complying with department regulations or to accept responsibility for their conduct does not provide the department with the assurance it needs to grant an additional license or to allow respondents to retain their existing licenses,” Vomhof wrote.

“Based on this record as a whole, nothing less than the revocation of respondent Thomsen’s infant and preschool licenses and the exclusion of respondents Thomsen and Daniels from department-licensed facilities shall assure public protection.”

Thomsen Learning Center has operated out of a 6,500-square-foot building at 217 Earlham St. since July 2022.

Thomsen, who has been in the child-care business for 42 years, did not respond to requests for comment Monday. She told the Ramona Sentinel on May 24 that the allegations were “unfounded” and blamed them on disgruntled competitors, investigators who had a vendetta against her, and her family’s status as one of Ramona’s most well-known.

On Monday morning, the lobby of Thomsen Learning Center was open. Daniels, who was at her desk, would not confirm whether the center was open or closed.

Children could be heard in the background at the center. Daniels said they were her own children who were upstairs while she was “dealing with licensing.” She said “attorneys are being consulted.”

Thomsen and Daniels can appeal the final orders, said Jason Montiel, who works in public affairs and outreach programs at the Department of Social Services.

However, since they no longer have a license to operate, the center must remain closed while an appeal is pending, Murray said.

Symona Andrews, whose daughter Ilaya is the girl whose arm was broken, said she was pleased with the order to close Thomsen Learning Center.

“It was such a relief,” she said Monday. “I got big goose bumps from head to toe. I was happy it was finally heard and I got justice for my baby.”

During the hearing in April, teacher Rozalynn Farley testified that she put ice on the girl’s arm after the accident and reached out to Thomsen and Daniels, saying she was concerned that her arm may be broken, Vomhof wrote in her order.

“Both dismissed her, stating that she and/or the child were being overdramatic and they did not have the time to deal with this issue,” Vomhof wrote.

Farley and a visitor to the preschool that day testified that Thomsen grabbed the child’s arm, bent it up and down and said “She’s fine,” according to the document.

Farley and the visitor also said Thomsen yelled at Farley in front of the children, the document stated.

Thomsen said May 24 that she did not see the child fall, and she denied that she grabbed the girl’s arm.

“The child started waving her arm around,” she said. “I never grabbed it. I would never hurt a child.”

Andrews, who also testified at the hearing, said she had signed a waiver for medical care.

“I would believe they would call 911 or do something,” she said Monday. “When I was filling out the form, it was for my daughter to get the care she needed.”

Andrews said she was sent a message with a photo of her daughter at about 10:30 a.m. after the incident.

“The picture showed my daughter sitting in a chair, the back of her, and an elbow with a small bandage on it. The smallest bandage,” she said. “It said she was riding a bike and she came around a corner too fast. She fell off and scraped her elbow. She said her arm was hurting. …

“It didn’t look like anything [serious] from the picture they sent. I went on with my regular workday,” she said.

Then, she said, she got a call from her mother, Jenny Andrews, an aide at the day-care center.

“She said she is not calling me on behalf of Thomsen but on her own time,” Symona Andrews recalled. “She told me: ‘The baby fell earlier and I just got here. I’m not a doctor, but I think her arm is broken and you should take her to the doctor.’”

Andrews said she didn’t have a car and called her daughter’s father, who picked up Ilaya and took her to an emergency room. Doctors told him she had a broken arm.

Thomsen and Daniels had “let her sit there for five hours,” Andrews said.

Andrews said she never took Ilaya, now 5, to any day-care center again. Ilaya starts kindergarten this year.

“I didn’t want her to experience trauma,” Andrews said. “And how could I trust anyone ever again?”

Farley and Jenny Andrews left the center after the incident.

Jenny Andrews testified at the hearing that she told Thomsen she didn’t want to work there anymore because she didn’t feel comfortable. She then received a text message from Thomsen and Daniels saying she was no longer needed, she testified.

Farley testified that she returned to work the day after Ilaya was injured and that Thomsen told her she was not going to report the incident and if there were issues, Farley would be blamed. Farley testified that she told Thomsen, “I’m not going to work here,” and she left.

Thomsen told the Sentinel on May 24 that “I didn’t like the way they handled it. I fired them.”

Thomsen Learning Center started as a day-care business in a Ramona garage and then moved to a 2,000-square-foot location at 1122 B St. Thomsen moved the center to its current location in 2022.

Since that move, the facility has received several citations requiring follow-up inspections, as well as complaints that required investigation, Vomhof stated.

Among the statements in the judge’s order:

• During a visit to the facility on Feb. 14, 2023, Patrick Ma, a licensing program analyst for the Community Care Licensing Division of the Social Services Department, observed nine infants being cared for in a room by two aides and one teacher who was not fully qualified. The required teacher-to-infant ratio is 1-to-4.

• On Oct. 12, 2022, during an unannounced visit to initiate an investigation prompted by a complaint received eight days earlier, Ma and Selena Siao, another licensing program analyst, found that the facility had no documentation of tuberculosis screening and immunization records for two employees.

• Thomsen permitted five employees of the preschool facility and two employees of the infant facility to care for children without being immunized against influenza, pertussis (whooping cough) and/or measles, in violation of sections of the state Health and Safety Code.

• Thomsen continued to run a school-age program after receiving a cease-and-desist order Oct. 12, 2022, that came after an investigator found eight children ages 5-7 in a classroom on the second floor that was not licensed for child care. During a visit about two weeks later, Ma found Daniels upstairs with 15 children despite the cease-and-desist order. And on Nov. 2 that year, Daniels was found with 16 school-age children in the upstairs classroom.

Daniels was the teacher of the unlicensed school-age program, according to the document.

She “did not seem to understand the department requirement that there must always be a director in charge, and that director cannot also be teaching in a classroom,” Vomhof wrote.

A non-compliance conference was held Nov. 16, 2022, with Daniels, Ma and other licensing officials. They discussed the violations at the time as well as violations at a previous location, the document stated. At the end of the conference, Daniels agreed to more training for staff. Thomsen did not attend.

But according to Vomhof, the violations continued and on April 19, 2023, the Department of Social Services began license revocation actions, which eventually resulted in this April’s hearing and the judge’s orders.