Daycare Q: Teacher Turnover

[beachbum2]

We have our daughter in an expensive franchise daycare. When she moved up to the 2-year-old class in April, we started seeing a new teacher every few weeks. There has been at least 6-7 main teachers in her class in the last four months plus a handful of other helpers. My DD usually two weeks to get comfortable with new teachers and routine. I am getting tired of having the constipation discussion with a new teacher every month.

I have polled my coworkers and they all think that, while some turnover is to be expected, they should be able to get a stable lead teacher in the class. Do you think this warrants a discussion with the director/owner? A few of the teachers have quit but a lot of it seems to be just shuffling teachers around based on scheduling/numbers.

[saraml13]

Yes, all daycares experience some turnover. However, this amount of turnover seems excessive. FWIW, a main driver of us leaving our daycare of 2.5 years was excessive teacher turnover with ZERO communications from the director/owner. I would definitely take it up with the director and go from there.

A legitimate answer may be "We are actively recruiting for a new permanent 2-ear old lead teacher. In the meantime, we have been covering the class with existing staff. We recognize that shuffling the teachers around is not ideal, and we expect to have a new permanent teacher in the classroom in X weeks." However, if you get an answer like "Well, it's hard. We have a lot of different staff schedules we're trying to work around. We'll try to be better about keeping you posted," then I would consider leaving.

[2chatter]

We had zero turnover for 3.5 years. Then it was a mess. Teachers quit after one day. Or one week. None of them were a good fit so no loss but hello chaos. In our case it was indicative of poor management and judgment. We ultimately left and should have left much more quickly.

I'd discuss with the director immediately.

[beachbum2]

Thanks saraml13. We were told about a month ago by one of the random teachers that a new full time teacher would be starting in DD's class. That never happened. The full time teacher went directly into another class.

I'll give the director a call and see what's up. I hate rocking the boat, but I get discouraged every time I see a brand new face at drop off.

[traveltheworld]

I'd talk to the director and get a sense of what the issue is. We were in the same boat, but we talked to the director and it was obvious that there were factors beyond her control, she was stressed about it, and was taking proactive steps to remedy the situation. After about 3 - 4 months of this craziness, it stabilized, and we had very little turn-over.

[beachbum2]

Thanks 2chatter. I just spoke with the owner and she said that they are working on it and have actually hired someone 8-5 who starts next week. Hopefully they will stick around. She said most of the problem is a) it's a hard age/class and b) they often hire college students and as they graduate they move on to actual teaching jobs, etc.

It was good to at least put my concern out there so that they have more incentive to keep the room more consistent. Another family that had twins in the class just left due to the same concern. But now that the twins are gone the class will probably be a little easier to manage.

[covergirl82]

beachbum2, we experienced higher-than-normal turnover when DD was in preschool. I think she had about 4 teachers in about as many months. I wish we would've pulled her out and moved her somewhere else (but we had already moved her once that year, right after Christmas, to be at a preschool closer to home so it was easier for me to do drop-off/pick-up when need be) or just had her go to the in-home DCP, because I feel like she didn't really learn to the level we expected by paying all that money for her to go to preschool.

I agree, beachbum2, it's good they are aware of more than one family being concerned. And actually having one family leave (with two kids, no less) because of the turnover will have an impact on their budget, and I'm sure they want full classes.

[ilovelucyvv]

It seems you've got your answer for now. The situation you describe sounds frustrating. We have experienced a decent amount of turnover with lead teachers from time to time but in those instances the assistant teachers stayed the same (at least for a longer period) and the overall routines were not constantly changing.

[2chatter]

beachbum2 - the answer they gave you, depending on your area, may mean that despite your hefty tuition, they aren't paying a good wage. In our last school all of the teachers were adults, most with multiple degrees. In our last school there were college kids and it was very much a day care as opposed to a full on school. Her response would make me look at other options as the lower the wage, the higher the turnover from what I have seen.

[k3am]

We've experienced turnover - maybe one teacher for each class that DD or DS was in. With our daycare's structure, for the most part, they're in one class for 6-8 months at the most. When she hit pre-K, her class ran from August September to June, and her teacher resigned so that her last day was after the last day of the class since she didn't want to cause issues with the students. DS is following in DD's footsteps almost 3.25 years later, and every class that he's started in, the main teacher has always been someone who has previously had DD.

I'd have concerns about what you're facing. And probably with the director's answers. From the sound of it, you're not getting what you're paying for. I think 2chatter probably hit the nail on the head.

[186momx]

With the info you were given I would start looking elsewhere. If they are just staffing with college kids then turnover and constant schedules changes is always going to be happening. If they just hadn't found the right fit with the class and were looking at staffing with a "seasoned teacher" then I would give them time.

DD's daycare had the problem of finding the right fit. I swear it was always DD's class that had issues and as soon as she was getting ready to age out they would find the right person and then we would go round the game in the next class. I will say that looking at the daycare now they seem to have found good fits for their infants, ones, and twos class but still struggle with the preschool/pre-k class as teachers seem to move on after the school year ends.

[beachbum2]

2chatter, I am quite certain that they don't pay well. DD's teacher from her previous classroom left when she got her degree because they offer NO pay increase for obtaining your degree. Every person they hire is "working on their degree."

We are looking at moving DD to our church daycare which is cheaper and very close to home. The only problem is that they don't take infants so we are trying to decide if we would want to deal with two different drop offs when we have another in the spring. (We just found out we are expecting number two!!!) If they have a waitlist, I'll probably call this week to at least get her on the list there.

[supertrooper1]

Congrats beachbum2!

[2chatter]

Congrats beachbum2! Two drop offs is not toooo bad - especially if one or more is curbside!

[kimberlybb]

Congrats beachbum2 !! That is way more turnover than I would be comfortable with too. I will echo 2chatter that multiple drop offs are doable. We have been doing two drop offs for two years now.

[beachbum2]

Thanks ladies!

[saraml13]

Congrats, beachbum2!

I hear you on the struggles of finding care for both a toddler and an infant. There are really only 2 centers near me that offer care for under two years old. We were at one (and unhappy with it) and on the waitlist for the other for a long time.

Personally, I'm on the side of minimizing the number of drop offs, but my kids are closer in age (exactly 2 years apart). Since none of the options we looked at had curbside drop off, I absolutely did not want to have to get both kids in and out of the car an extra set of times.

[k3am]

beachbum2, congrats!

[librarychica]

Congrats!

[vasc]

My DD has been in four different daycares in the four years she's been alive, so her turnover is more frequent than the employee's I feel, but we did notice frequent turnover at daycares 2 and 3, both of which were also franchises. Unfortunately for daycare 2 the turnover was in her classroom, so it really upset me, especially since we were trying to potty train and I didn't feel the staff filling in were good enough about remaining consistent with DD.

In daycare 3 her teacher was stable, but other classes were impacted, which meant kids were shuffled in and out of DD's class on various days as they tried to provide coverage for everyone.

I think both centers struggled with hiring and retaining high quality employees in a respectively low paying job.

[billie]

Congrats beachbum2!

[beachbum2]

Thank you all!

I think we will see how September goes with the new teacher who is supposed to start Tuesday. If it's another bad month or the new teacher is flaky, I may move her in October.

[mustardseed2007]

beachbum2, congrats!

At our school what we have seen is that the lead teacher doesn't change but the staff around them sometimes does. In the early childhood classes there are two main teachers per class that are very stable, but the assistants change more often, and after school staff change more often as well.

Also, immediately after someone leaves they sometimes cycle through several people as they try to find someone that isn't going to flake and is a good fit with the school and kids.