SAN JOSE — A residential day care facility in San Jose’s Almaden neighborhood where two toddlers drowned earlier this week has had its operating license suspended and will face a sizable fine, according to authorities.
In a statement, state Department of Social Services spokesperson Jason Montiel said the agency notified Happy Happy Home Daycare that its license went under suspension at 5 p.m. Wednesday, pending a request by the facility’s owners — listed in state records as Nina Fathizadeh and Shahin Shenas — for a hearing.
The department also notified the facility that its license may be revoked and the license holders could be barred from ever operating such a facility again.
The department fined the license holders $11,000 in civil penalties, Montiel said.
Two 1-year-old girls — identified by authorities Tuesday as Payton Cobb, of Hollister, and Lillian Hanan, of San Jose — were found Monday morning in a pool at the home and later pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital. A third child was found in the water with them and survived after being taken to a hospital.
Officers and firefighters were called at 9:05 a.m. Monday for a welfare check after being told of “several children in a pool,” San Jose police spokesperson Steve Aponte said. Two children were found in a state of “severe medical distress,” while another child was in the water when emergency workers arrived.
Sean Webby, a spokesperson for the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, said police were still investigating the case; prosecutors were already reviewing the evidence to determine whether criminal charges would be filed.
State regulators have issued multiple citations to the facility over the past year for a variety of infractions. The most recent was for not properly documenting their checks on sleeping children under their care. They also were cited in January for having one too many infants at the house at one time.
Even so, regulators never found issue with the pool’s safety after agreeing to license the facility in early 2021.
As recently as January, state officials specifically noted in their reports that the property’s pool met all of California’s requirements for such facilities — noting that the pool is surrounded by a five-foot-tall fence. The fence is made from a “hard mesh” material that lets those outside see into the pool area and has a self-closing and self-latching gate, according to the inspection report.
Pools are allowed at home day care facilities in California, so long as they include one of two safety measures: a fence or a covering that can withstand the weight of an adult, according to the California Department of Social Services.
It’s a less stringent standard than what’s required at newly-constructed pools in the state — regardless of whether it’s at a day care or not. That’s because a law passed in 2017 mandated that new pools have at least two safety measures to keep children from accidentally falling into the water, such as a fence, a covering or an alarm system on nearby doors. Previously, pools could be built with just one safety mechanism.
Staff writer Austin Turner contributed to this report.
