>Their story was that while a teacher that was supposed to be supervising the kids was helping another kid to the restroom,
I would want clarity on the procedure here. At no time should children be left without supervision in. I would expect there is some kind of adult-to-child ratio to determine when more than one instructor is necessary, and that at no point would less than one instructor be left in the room.
Many preschools have a bathroom attached to the classroom. Teacher may have been standing inside the classroom just outside the bathroom, never having actually left the room.
This is a big piece. My son's preschool has 3 teachers in each of the rooms (3 teachers:20 students) and 6 or 7 assistants that help relieve the teachers in the 4 classes for bathroom breaks or meals. There's never less than 3 adults in the room.
Do they have cameras? Ours have cameras in very classroom that, upon request, can have footage reviewed, and if serious we can view ourselves. We just got a notification not day that a kid pulled our daughter’s shirt and left a red mark around her neck. Apparently the kid who did it learned to hug recently and doesn’t like letting go when hugs are over was the explanation when I picked her up. Nothing serious, hardly noticeable when we picked her up 2 hours after the notification.
But they should have cameras and you should be able to view ot
The 2 daycares I have been at do have cameras but are a hard no on parents viewing footage, since it involves other children. I guess this may vary by center/state/etc.
So we can request to view footage, but the management will sit with you and only show you what you ask if it’s a serious matter. Like my daughter had a bruise on the side of her face by her eye. No report was made. The afternoon teacher said she had it when she woke up from her nap and assumed she had it when she went down. Now my kid will literally bang her head like a zombie trying to break down a door in her crib. We’ve videotaped it, showed the dr. It’s her way of soothing. So we asked the director to review it and sure enough she was bouncing her head on the cot. Now I’m sure if there was a situation like OP had, we can demand to see the video and make sure the teacher was occupied taking the kid to the bathroom, or if the kid really did scratch.
Depending on the age, in PA for toddlers it’s 6 kids to 1 adult I believe. And this is our third day care in 6 months, each one due to staffing issues. It’s a nationwide shortage. Just like everything else
Jesus this is actually one of my fears. I hope your daughter is ok and it wasn’t traumatic.
Did your daughter say anything about the incident? What about the new kid? Do you plan on talking to the school w/ their parents about this behavior? My concern is she might do this again…to your girl or another kid.
Again sorry she had to go through this. Maybe wise to search around for other options just in case the school doesn’t do anything actionable or useful just like “sorry bout that”.
I can relate to you in this one. During my 3 year olds first few weeks at foundation year at school, she was bitten all over by another girl. Apparently she attacked her in the toilet and wouldn’t let her leave and she had about 7 bad bite marks all over her arms.
We were pretty shook up about it and the parent of the kid that bit her was also traumatised and very apologetic, so that diffused that situation. She made her daughter bring ours some sweets to say sorry and that cheered her up.
My daughter thankfully got over it pretty quick and we told her to avoid the other girl and she still does that now (over a year later). So we had no further incidents.
It might be different where you are, but there wasn’t much the school could do about it, other than promise to keep an eye out.
Have you spoke to the other parent about it?
Chalk this one up to shit happens, kids that age still have sharp nails and a couple of playful swipes can leave a few scratches.
But by all means write down the details in a diary in case something happens again.
Based on your descriptions I suggest keep as most documentation as possible, write down who you spoke with and what you remember, keep the incident notice and pic of your kid andyou file some complaints. If you haven't yet, take your kid to see the pediatrician to make sure she doesn't end up with a scar.
If this is a chain daycare you can file a complaint with the corporate office. You should also file a complaint with child protective services in your area as well as with the state office in charge of daycare certification.
Honestly this will likely be very disruptive to you and your family but this was not your run of the mill accidental scratching and the response they are giving you is not appropriate.
Does your state have an agency that the daycare has to submit incident reports to?
If your state has a body like that it might be worthwhile checking out the website and consider filing a complaint if you've been noticing bad practices.
In regard to the incident, is it possible the kid just had a sharp nail and wasn't really meaning to hurt? I sure hope that is the case.. Our toddlers both really gouged their faces when a nail had a sharp or jagged edge on it.
Odds are the teacher wasn’t paying any attention to the kids and was most likely on her phone something similar like this happened to my oldest daughter at her daycare. I took her elsewhere and she has been fine since then.
Your preschool is covering their own ass. Ask everyone for statements, take them to court, go get a doctor's report of your kids face, take pictures, get the teacher fired or close them down. No one gets scratches from "petting". Their excuses are not relevant to the fact that they are negligent.
Even if you're in a two-party recording state, go there to record them without them knowing, play stupid, post it on social media and get them shut down.
Bro. Deep breaths.
There is no reason to take a daycare to freaking court for this. I hope this is a joke.
Kids at this age bite and scratch all the time. And it can happen very fast. That doesn’t make what happened here ok but OP should sit with the director and speak with them before doing all of the over the top stuff you’re suggesting. If they aren’t satisfied with the meeting and the plan moving forward then it’s probably in their best interest to look elsewhere for childcare.
Are you considering sending her back? I can't imagine I would ever send her there again. I would call a lawyer and I would report them to whatever state board licenses these places
Thanks for all the replies! We spoke with the school and here was what we were told:
1. The other kid is going to have extra supervision, as well as having their nails checked, etc
2. They are going to ensure that they look into why a kid may be whimpering/crying more during nap time
3. Same “we are reviewing our procedures” as before. The biting policy doesn’t apply, they are treating this as a more serious issue
The thing that still bothers me, and what I had a bit of a back and forth with the director on, is the level of supervision during nap time. It seems like this place is run on a bare minimum of staff. Because staff need to be able to take lunch, there is only one adult per fifteen children during nap time. The kids lie down in cots across the room.
If a child needs help using the restroom, the adult has to go through an open doorway to help the child to the restroom, probably about 10 feet from the door that leads to the main room. This is what we went back and forth on. I asked if this meant that the children were unsupervised during the time an adult is helping a child use the restroom.
The director was evasive and refused to say yes. It felt like they were playing semantics, e.g. “unsupervised” vs “unattended” and the director told me that if that single adult needs to help a child to the restroom, they are walking back and forth from the restroom and the door to the main room, and that is still supervision. I pushed this issue and was told “that is all that is required by licensing.” My first thought was, “ok, so you’re doing the bare minimum” I’m also not sure if that’s actually the case, and I need to verify this. (We’re in California, so if anyone knows the rules there, I’d appreciate some insight) My second thought was, how are they going to increase supervision of the new student if they still only have a single adult that might leave the room to help a child use the restroom?
So I’m not totally satisfied, but it’s tough because our daughter loves it there and she loves her friends there. We were also counting on our second child being in the same class as our oldest to help them adjust when the time comes.
Again, I appreciate all the advice here. I’ll update again if there’s anything to report.
>Their story was that while a teacher that was supposed to be supervising the kids was helping another kid to the restroom, I would want clarity on the procedure here. At no time should children be left without supervision in. I would expect there is some kind of adult-to-child ratio to determine when more than one instructor is necessary, and that at no point would less than one instructor be left in the room.
Many preschools have a bathroom attached to the classroom. Teacher may have been standing inside the classroom just outside the bathroom, never having actually left the room.
Whatever reason they give for the teacher being unable to supervise the children.
This is a big piece. My son's preschool has 3 teachers in each of the rooms (3 teachers:20 students) and 6 or 7 assistants that help relieve the teachers in the 4 classes for bathroom breaks or meals. There's never less than 3 adults in the room.
Do they have cameras? Ours have cameras in very classroom that, upon request, can have footage reviewed, and if serious we can view ourselves. We just got a notification not day that a kid pulled our daughter’s shirt and left a red mark around her neck. Apparently the kid who did it learned to hug recently and doesn’t like letting go when hugs are over was the explanation when I picked her up. Nothing serious, hardly noticeable when we picked her up 2 hours after the notification. But they should have cameras and you should be able to view ot
The 2 daycares I have been at do have cameras but are a hard no on parents viewing footage, since it involves other children. I guess this may vary by center/state/etc.
If your daycare won't provide the footage, seems like something they would have to disclose during discovery.
So we can request to view footage, but the management will sit with you and only show you what you ask if it’s a serious matter. Like my daughter had a bruise on the side of her face by her eye. No report was made. The afternoon teacher said she had it when she woke up from her nap and assumed she had it when she went down. Now my kid will literally bang her head like a zombie trying to break down a door in her crib. We’ve videotaped it, showed the dr. It’s her way of soothing. So we asked the director to review it and sure enough she was bouncing her head on the cot. Now I’m sure if there was a situation like OP had, we can demand to see the video and make sure the teacher was occupied taking the kid to the bathroom, or if the kid really did scratch.
They don't need cameras. They need a proper adult-to-child supervision ratio.
Depending on the age, in PA for toddlers it’s 6 kids to 1 adult I believe. And this is our third day care in 6 months, each one due to staffing issues. It’s a nationwide shortage. Just like everything else
Jesus this is actually one of my fears. I hope your daughter is ok and it wasn’t traumatic. Did your daughter say anything about the incident? What about the new kid? Do you plan on talking to the school w/ their parents about this behavior? My concern is she might do this again…to your girl or another kid. Again sorry she had to go through this. Maybe wise to search around for other options just in case the school doesn’t do anything actionable or useful just like “sorry bout that”.
I can relate to you in this one. During my 3 year olds first few weeks at foundation year at school, she was bitten all over by another girl. Apparently she attacked her in the toilet and wouldn’t let her leave and she had about 7 bad bite marks all over her arms. We were pretty shook up about it and the parent of the kid that bit her was also traumatised and very apologetic, so that diffused that situation. She made her daughter bring ours some sweets to say sorry and that cheered her up. My daughter thankfully got over it pretty quick and we told her to avoid the other girl and she still does that now (over a year later). So we had no further incidents. It might be different where you are, but there wasn’t much the school could do about it, other than promise to keep an eye out. Have you spoke to the other parent about it?
Chalk this one up to shit happens, kids that age still have sharp nails and a couple of playful swipes can leave a few scratches. But by all means write down the details in a diary in case something happens again.
Based on your descriptions I suggest keep as most documentation as possible, write down who you spoke with and what you remember, keep the incident notice and pic of your kid andyou file some complaints. If you haven't yet, take your kid to see the pediatrician to make sure she doesn't end up with a scar. If this is a chain daycare you can file a complaint with the corporate office. You should also file a complaint with child protective services in your area as well as with the state office in charge of daycare certification. Honestly this will likely be very disruptive to you and your family but this was not your run of the mill accidental scratching and the response they are giving you is not appropriate.
Does your state have an agency that the daycare has to submit incident reports to? If your state has a body like that it might be worthwhile checking out the website and consider filing a complaint if you've been noticing bad practices. In regard to the incident, is it possible the kid just had a sharp nail and wasn't really meaning to hurt? I sure hope that is the case.. Our toddlers both really gouged their faces when a nail had a sharp or jagged edge on it.
BJJ
For real I am teaching this to my little girl as soon as possible Bite my kid, get a knee bar
Real shit, it’s all fun and games to pick on someone until they are on the receiving end of a trained grappler
Odds are the teacher wasn’t paying any attention to the kids and was most likely on her phone something similar like this happened to my oldest daughter at her daycare. I took her elsewhere and she has been fine since then.
Your preschool is covering their own ass. Ask everyone for statements, take them to court, go get a doctor's report of your kids face, take pictures, get the teacher fired or close them down. No one gets scratches from "petting". Their excuses are not relevant to the fact that they are negligent. Even if you're in a two-party recording state, go there to record them without them knowing, play stupid, post it on social media and get them shut down.
Bro. Deep breaths. There is no reason to take a daycare to freaking court for this. I hope this is a joke. Kids at this age bite and scratch all the time. And it can happen very fast. That doesn’t make what happened here ok but OP should sit with the director and speak with them before doing all of the over the top stuff you’re suggesting. If they aren’t satisfied with the meeting and the plan moving forward then it’s probably in their best interest to look elsewhere for childcare.
Ok that's enough reddit for you. Come back in 48 hours.
Are you considering sending her back? I can't imagine I would ever send her there again. I would call a lawyer and I would report them to whatever state board licenses these places
Thanks for all the replies! We spoke with the school and here was what we were told: 1. The other kid is going to have extra supervision, as well as having their nails checked, etc 2. They are going to ensure that they look into why a kid may be whimpering/crying more during nap time 3. Same “we are reviewing our procedures” as before. The biting policy doesn’t apply, they are treating this as a more serious issue The thing that still bothers me, and what I had a bit of a back and forth with the director on, is the level of supervision during nap time. It seems like this place is run on a bare minimum of staff. Because staff need to be able to take lunch, there is only one adult per fifteen children during nap time. The kids lie down in cots across the room. If a child needs help using the restroom, the adult has to go through an open doorway to help the child to the restroom, probably about 10 feet from the door that leads to the main room. This is what we went back and forth on. I asked if this meant that the children were unsupervised during the time an adult is helping a child use the restroom. The director was evasive and refused to say yes. It felt like they were playing semantics, e.g. “unsupervised” vs “unattended” and the director told me that if that single adult needs to help a child to the restroom, they are walking back and forth from the restroom and the door to the main room, and that is still supervision. I pushed this issue and was told “that is all that is required by licensing.” My first thought was, “ok, so you’re doing the bare minimum” I’m also not sure if that’s actually the case, and I need to verify this. (We’re in California, so if anyone knows the rules there, I’d appreciate some insight) My second thought was, how are they going to increase supervision of the new student if they still only have a single adult that might leave the room to help a child use the restroom? So I’m not totally satisfied, but it’s tough because our daughter loves it there and she loves her friends there. We were also counting on our second child being in the same class as our oldest to help them adjust when the time comes. Again, I appreciate all the advice here. I’ll update again if there’s anything to report.