We toured a brand new DC center today. We will mostly be using it as preschool for DD2, and then if I ever go back to work, DD2 and DD3 will go there for full days, and they can bus DD1 there for after school care.
Every daycare I have ever been to (which is only 2 or 3) give you a code to open the door and then you are in a little hallway while you sign your kid in or out, and then they have to buzz you through to the next set of doors. So, you have no access to any kids unless they buzz you through. DD1's elementary school is similar that you can walk into a foyer type room and talk to the school secretary and then she has to buzz you through a set of doors to actually get to where any kids are.
The place we went to today just has one set of locked doors and you use a generic PIN number to get in. Everyone uses the same number and they change it "as needed". Once you are in the doors, its a wide open space where they greet you, you sign your kids in/out. But straight ahead is a common room, where kids will be at various times throughout the day. So, once someone puts in that generic PIN, they are only about 10 steps away from kids, with maybe a receptionist or two who are behind a counter, to stop them from getting to kids.
Am I totally off base being freaked out about this? Is it typical? I love everything about this school, and DH thinks I am being paranoid and obviously "nothing will happen".
One set of locked doors that we use a generic PIN number for. Then we are in a hallway. There are four classrooms that are all off of that hallway. Each classroom has a door, but not locked. We then go to our children's rooms and pick them up.
Big city on a busy street. Ring bell, guy at desk buzzes you in or opens the door personally for you. There is no additional security past that front door. There is no signing your kid in or out for the day.
Big city on a busy street. Ring bell, guy at desk buzzes you in or opens the door personally for you. There is no additional security past that front door. There is no signing your kid in or out for the day.
This. Except you sign your kid in and out inside of their actual classroom.
The one we're going with is insane, because it's in a federal building. It's all federal agencies, DoD, and... a daycare. (Like you do.) We'll be taking Hobbes through a metal detector every day just to get to the elevators, then there's a keypad lock on the daycare floor with different codes for each child (I think Calvin & I will use the same code), and armed officers guarding the playground. I actually am not sure what the deal is with non-parent visitors/pickups; I don't remember that from the tour. (These are not reasons we chose this DC, just to be clear.)
Basically every other place we looked was more normal. Keypad or magnetic key card at the entrance, photo IDs and advance warning for non-parent pickups and visits, etc. They generally only had one set of locked doors to go through, a receptionist, and then classrooms.
Post by InBetweenDays on Jul 27, 2015 12:48:44 GMT -5
Our kids are beyond daycare age, but that is how ours was. One generic pin to get you in the door. Then a hallway with 4 classrooms for the different aged kids. You had to go into the appropriate room to sign out your child, but there was no additional security door beyond the one with the generic pin.
We have 2 locked doors, but they both have the same generic pin number. No signing kids in or out. But our daycare is at our work which requires showing a badge to get through a guard gate, so.... it's not something we really worry about.
One locked door with generic PIN they change periodically. You do sign the kid in and out and there's an admin desk at the front, but no other security beyond that. They are supposed to check IDs of non-parents picking up kids. We've been at 2 different centers (same company chain) and it's been the same at both.
Big city on a busy street. Ring bell, guy at desk buzzes you in or opens the door personally for you. There is no additional security past that front door. There is no signing your kid in or out for the day.
Same here, although the admin office is right inside the front doors. However, it's not an open space - it would be really hard given the layout for someone to come in and grab a kid without several admins and teachers noticing.
Also, if anyone but either parent picks a child up, the center has to have written notification in advance and their IDs get copied and put into the kid's file. If they're not on the list of people permitted to pick the child up, they don't get past the admin office.
Post by water*drop on Jul 27, 2015 12:57:02 GMT -5
Each household has their own ID/PIN to buzz yourself into the center. There's a little foyer with a touch screen where you enter that information. This both unlocks the main door and signs your child(ren) in and out. Just inside of the main door is the administrative desk, where the director and assistant director work. It almost always has at least one person there. The individual rooms have unlocked doors.
Ours is pretty similar to that but we have a key fob we have to wave in front of a sensor to get in. Then you are in the office/admin area where you sign your kid in/out. From there you just walk down the hall to the classrooms.
Post by cricketwife on Jul 27, 2015 13:00:12 GMT -5
Everyone has a magnetic key for entry. Then you sign your kid or out of the specific room. Honestly, I wouldn't get freaked out about the scenario you are describing.
Current location (after care fro DS, STB DD will go there after my maternity leave is over) lacking-- people are too polite. All parents have key fobs that unlock the doors but people hold the doors so much anyone could really get in. Teachers will check your ID if you don't look familiar to the teacher. My stepmom does get carded every time even with DS running to her immediately.
Funny story--- at my LAST day care with DS the teacher didn't recognize H. DS didn't want to leave (too involved in his activity) so the teacher felt really uncomfortable releasing DS to him thinking that he didn't really know H. She called the director down and carded him, the director came down (we had been going there for years-- teacher was a floater/sub) and was like "yes, that is his father, what is the problem?". Ben was both happy with the security policy but also "wtf" about his son not being released to him just because DS was too into legos to want to leave.
Only one of the DCs DS attended had any sort of code to get in, and that was a generic pin. The rest just had unlocked doors that opened directly to a front desk area. Here in Houston the kids were actually behind a locked door, but in our smaller town they were not. It really was not something that was an issue for me.
One locked door with a generic PIN they change as needed. There is a separate baby house for 6 weeks to 12 months, then the big house for 12 months to 12 years. When you enter the main building there is a reception desk that someone is always at. You sign your child out then go down the hall to their class room and get your kid, those rooms do not have locks on the doors. They are very strict with non-parents/legal guardians having to show ID to pick up children.
There is another daycare down the street from ours that do not have any locks on the doors. One of my friends went to tour it when she was looking for a center for her DD. She said she walked right in, there was no one at the front desk. She walked around the building for a few minutes around many children and teachers before anyone stopped her. Needless to say she did not choose to put her child there.
Our last daycare had one generic pin that everybody got. It was downtown. Only one door. The new one, everyone gets their own pin. Once we were paying customers, we didn't have to be buzzed in at either place.
The only DCP I toured where everyone had to be buzzed in was located very close to the courthouses and the jail.
One set of locked doors that we use a generic PIN number for. Then we are in a hallway. There are four classrooms that are all off of that hallway. Each classroom has a door, but not locked. We then go to our children's rooms and pick them up.
This is ours exactly.
Ditto this. If the director is in her office, she can see everyone entering, but she isn't always.
Same as you, op. Only we do sign G in and out each day, though that happens in his classroom.
Our center is small-ish and most of the staff "knows" the kids and whoever typically picks them up. When my parents pick G up, we have to sign a log letting them know and my parents have to be buzzed in, show ID, and are escorted to his room and out of the building.
There aren't any locks at our DC, just on the classroom doors. The teaches have to recognize you, otherwise they ask for ID. Each child has a scan card that has the parents on the front and other people authorized to pick up the child. You have to be one of those people to take them. The you scan in/out at the main office and leave the card there so they know the child has been picked up.
Ours has an intercom-like system. We press a button outside - they look through from inside and buzz you in. We sign him in and out. We have a signed paper of the people allowed to pick him up.
Ours is like this. I think we only toured one facility that had a double buzz-through. The outside door is unlocked during periods of high activity in the morning and afternoon and someone is always at the front desk. It's a small facility so they know who belongs and who doesn't. If no one is at the desk then the door is locked. During non-peak times the door is locked and you have to ring a doorbell to be let in. Classrooms are down a hall and the doors aren't locked. If there is an emergency and someone runs in, the doors can be remotely locked from the front desk.
Ours is open door to receptionist area, then locked door where you can use a pin number (specific to each parent/child) or thumbprint scan. This will check the child in/out and give a ticket with their name & the time. This ticket then needs to be given to the teacher(s) in the classroom to claim a child.
Or you can be buzzed in if their system is down, or you're not the usual picking up (ie. occasional grandparent pick ups haven't been set up for a thumb scan). But they need to be on the pick up list - name/drivers license # and prior notice given that someone else will be picking up.
Ours main door is unlocked during business hours, but opens into a small lobby with large window into the admin office (almost always staffed). You then sign your kid in/out of center with your fingerprint on machine next to an iPad. Once your print is recognized, your child's info pulls up and you tab to sign them in/out. After you do that, the interior door unlatches and you can enter the main space.
I like it - but there's a lot of holding the door for folks/etc (despite many signs asking people NOT to do that). I'm not overly paranoid that someone will be let in, but I am the bitch who doesn't hold a door unless I 100% know you/your family from the center.
DDs preschool has a pin or mag card at entrance, walk by the office where the admin staff knows everyone by name, and then to the classrooms to sign in/out. You submit a list of people that are able to pick up your child.
Post by undecidedowl on Jul 27, 2015 13:16:01 GMT -5
We walk into a small lobby with a window to the director and assistant. Parents have key fobs to get through the next door. Non-parents ring the bell and whoever is up front checks their ID and lets them in. Once inside, all the classroom doors are off that hallway and are supposed to be closed and locked. They have dutch doors though, so a lot of times the top half is open. There are a couple other entrances to the center that also require the key fob, but they can only be accessed during typical drop off and pick up times.
Post by redheadbaker on Jul 27, 2015 13:17:13 GMT -5
Every parent has their own PIN code to get into the building. Then we go up to the third floor, and have to enter the PIN again (daycare shares the building with a gym and dance school). Then sign DS in with his teacher in his classroom.
Ours has a personal pin that will unlock the doors and is the way that a child is signed in/out of the classroom. Once you are in there is no secretary or anything, you can just go right into the classroom that is needed.
We have a keytag that you use to get in through the front door, then to sign your kid in/out you use a fingerprint scanner that prints a ticket, then you use your keytag to get through a second set of doors. If you don't have a keytag (grandparent, etc), you have to hit a buzzer and talk to the front desk person to buzz you in.
It sounds like a lot but it is not too convoluted.
Post by shellbear09 on Jul 27, 2015 13:55:45 GMT -5
Our just has one set of doors and we have a personal pin to get in. There is reception and classrooms are all behind unlocked doors down a hallway. We have to physically sign and punch kids in/out electronically. The generic pin thing kind of bothers me but I don't think that would be a dealbreaker.