Former Raleigh Daycare Teacher Charged With Felony Child Abuse After Breaking Child's Leg

A four-year-old child at the KinderCare on Mitchell Mill Road in Raleigh ended up with a fractured lower leg and ankle on August 22 after a teacher allegedly yanked him by the ankle while forcing him into a cross-legged sitting position on the floor. Ashley Nicole Taris, 24, appeared in Wake County Court Thursday afternoon on a charge of felony neglect child abuse with serious bodily injury, a case that exposes not just one alleged act of violence but a months-long failure of the safeguards meant to stop it.

North Carolina's Division of Child Development and Early Education, which investigated the incident, described Taris as "aggressively" pulling the child by the lower leg. The agency cited the Mitchell Mill Road facility six days later, on August 28. That citation did not end Taris's access to children. Following guidance from state officials, KinderCare allowed her to continue teaching under what both the company and regulators called an approved safety plan.

She remained in classrooms for roughly two more months.

It was not until October 2025 that licensing officials told KinderCare to remove Taris while the investigation continued. "We promptly placed her on administrative leave at that time, removing her from the center," KinderCare said in a statement. "Ms. Taris did not return to our center since being placed on administrative leave, and she is no longer a KinderCare employee." By the time she was removed, a second incident had already occurred: court records show Taris faces a separate misdemeanor child abuse charge tied to a November 5 incident, though the citation in that case is largely blank with no details about the alleged abuse.

The DCDEE revoked Taris's childcare license on November 20 after learning of the new charge. Taris responded by suing the agency in January 2026 to contest the revocation; that proceeding has been temporarily stayed while the criminal case moves forward. KinderCare operates more than a dozen locations across Wake County, and court documents in the criminal case do not specify which site Taris worked at, but state agency records pinpoint Mitchell Mill Road.

The timeline raises a direct question about how safety plans function: what oversight was in place during the two months Taris remained in classrooms after a state agency had already cited the facility for a child's broken bone?

Parents who want to check a facility's inspection history before enrolling a child can search any licensed North Carolina center through the DCDEE's database at ncchildcare.ncdhhs.gov. Each facility profile includes a "DCDEE Visits" tab with summaries of monitoring visits. Complaints against licensed programs can be filed through the same site, and the agency's Raleigh office relocated to 1915 Health Services Way as of October 2025. Questions worth asking a center director this week: how many staff members were in the room at the time of any reported incident, whether the center's staffing ratios have ever been cited as deficient, and what a parent should expect to be notified of if an injury occurs on-site.

No trial date has been set in the Taris case.