UPDATE: Daycare related -- is this normal?

[karinothing]

I don't know how it is all at daycares, but I notice at mine they kind of suck on the admin side. I love the daycare because the teachers we do have always are great, but getting notice of new teachers or teachers leaving hasn't been consistent.

For a while we got no notice when a teacher left (but we would get some when a teacher came in). People complained and then we started getting notification when teachers left (although lots of time it was just an email because the teacher didn't give two weeks notice). Now, that has stopped again (we have yet ANOTHER director). WE do get notice of new teachers. They will send out an email, but sometimes it is just a line in the weekly newsletter, which I don't always read lol.

So I guess in short. In my experience daycares suck when it comes to parent communication and the admin side of things. I think a lot of time they hire people with experience in taking care of kids but neglect to hire someone with office/admin experience which is what they really need.

[jeaniebueller]

Take what I say with a grain of salt, since i don't use a center, but i would not be pleased with the disorganization, numerous unhappy kids and the director oversharing their hiring woes.

[scsarah]

In my center, that's part for the course, but I get the feeling that's not the case everywhere. Since our center problems are long-standing, and deal with purposeful understaffing, I'd say it might be time to talk with the director asap about hiring/staffing plans.

Out of curiosity, is your center part of a larger daycare corporation?

[CloudBee]

They should, at the very least, be posting a memo on the door or near the entrance with these updates. I understand that smaller centers may not be organized enough to do email blasts or newsletters, but they can certainly post notices.

[karinothing]

May 27, 2016 7:21:00 GMT -5 swizz said:

May 27, 2016 7:17:59 GMT -5 karinothing said:

They will send out an email, but sometimes it is just a line in the weekly newsletter, which I don't always read lol.

So I guess in short. In my experience daycares suck when it comes to parent communication and the admin side of things. I think a lot of time they hire people with experience in taking care of kids but neglect to hire someone with office/admin experience which is what they really need.

Yeah, we have no email notifications of anything (at least I haven't seen any since we started in January) and no weekly/monthly newsletter. We're either told in person the day before, via Facebook (weather closings, which were SUPER inconsistent in policy), or there's a sign on the door.

Do you have a parent partnership? WE have one (or had before the new director, don't get me started lol). Anyway, the parents meet with the admin one a month or every other month and kind of hash all this stuff out. Maybe you could talk to the director about forming one? Even if no one is open to that, I think you can talk to them about setting up email notification for weather (and asking for a set policy). Ours emails the policy out at the beginning of the winter season and then if there is a big storm coming we get multiple updates leading up to it.

I would ask them about creating a weekly newsletter. Ours has things like the lesson for the week (each class does the same theme, but a different level of learning at our school). Ours also includes if any of the admin staff will be off. Any important events coming up. Oh and reminders for vaccination records or bringing sunscreen, that kind of stuff.

[jm1982]

I do expect notification of teacher changes. Not if it's just a floater covering the class for the day, but permanent changes.

So for example, DS's lead teacher in toddlers left last week; we had an email one week early alerting us to the change. We also got an email yesterday telling us that his second teacher is out for the week due to an injury, but that she will be back next Tuesday.

And other than one teacher on maternity leave and the change when he switched rooms, this has been the only turnover in his teachers in a year. Some auxiliary staff has turned over, but not his teachers.

I would be cautiously concerned, and if it's not less chaotic next week, I'd talk to the director.

[circa1978]

I pulled Henry from our first daycare, which I had been happy with up until this point, when he went through four teachers in a year. The preschool he has been at since has lost about five teachers he interacts with in three years but only once has he lost one of his main classroom teachers. (The others were specials like gym and music.) Both required annual contracts but it is low-paying and people tend to be young so, it happens.

ETA: We get emails at the current school when it happens. At the previous daycare (also an accredited preschool/kindy) things were a little more informal and we found out as we walked in. 

[chickadee77]

I guess I'm very fortunate with my daycare. Yes, if the main teachers change, I would expect notification. And have gotten it - we had one of the main teachers leave when L was in the infant room, and received a letter from both the daycare and the teacher. We also went through a director change, and things were a bit chaotic for awhile, but nothing like what you're describing.

Changes in floaters or helpers? No, I would not expect notification. I will say that some days are just crazy, though - I've walked in to my daughter's normally fairly orderly room for pickup and it's been a total disaster. And once one kid starts crying, it seems they all join in.

I would not be pleased with a new teacher attempting to give pseudo-medical advice. That's a huge no-no in most daycares. They can point out if they see an issue, but I would be a bit ticked if they decided to suddenly start screwing with her food/fluid intake.

[djc315]

I would not be pleased with no communication about a new teacher. It sounds like they are having a really difficult time sorting all the changes out, and I'd give them another week or two to get their shit together before making a fuss.

I would ask your mom and C's dad how pickup was on the days they were there, just to have some more insight.

[miamigirl]

I wouldn't be happy about it. Can you talk to the director to voice your concerns?

[runblondie26]

That's how it all went down when a new center opened up a few miles down the road from our current center last year. The director and teachers left en masse because they were offering better pay. Can't blame them.

I found this out when I bumped into one of DS's old teachers at the grocery store, lol. The center didn't provide any explanation for the departures at the time. There were a couple months of growing pains as new staff came in, but everything eventually smoothed out later.

[VillainV]

We might get a brief mention of we see the director at pick-up or drop-off ("oh, btw, it's Joanne's last day on Friday") but never official written notification. Some teachers have told us themselves.

We have noticed a lot of turnover this time of year, then settles out for the summer, lots of transition again as school starts back up in the fall, then fairly stable during the school year. We also live in a military town and lots of the employees are mil spouses , so there is natural turnover with that too.

I don't think what you are experiencing is in any way abnormal, but I also don't think it would hurt to ask for more communication if you don't feel you're getting enough.

[kershnic]

It annoys the crap out of me but my daycare also sucks at communication. They'll email that a teacher is leaving one time, but then forget to email the next time. They had a monthly newsletter that came out twice. A Facebook page they don't update. An electronic weekly newsletter that came out once....

[ktstorm]

The only notification that we've received has been from the teacher herself- never from the administration. Normally only when it's a main teacher, the floater teachers are normally pretty consistent to the classrooms, but I've never received notification about or from any of them We do get a daily sheet email for both children and since they started using that system the communication has been much better. It's called tadpole and is a program that runs on iphone/ipad. The director also sends out announcements through it as well.

[boxerdog]

It's annoying, but it sounds normal. My daycare hasn't given me any formal notice when teachers leave/move rooms.

[Deleted]

A couple of times while J was in daycare there were some big reorganizations where the lead teachers were all being moved around. We received advanced notice of this both times via the newsletter and posting the newsletter/notice on the classroom doors.

There were other times that floaters or assistant teachers left or moved around and and we weren't told ahead of time unless the teacher told me herself or another teacher happened to mention it.

[AmyRI]

Annoying but not uncommon at our center. Especially in the 2-2.5 year old room. It's a hard age and the turnover in that room is especially bad.

[water*drop]

Not getting much advance notice doesn't sound weird to me, but the rest of it would bother me, particularly because things seem to be so disorganized.

Communication-wise, we are told via email if a main teacher leaves, though usually only a day in advance, which appears to be by design because we've definitely known off the record that a teacher we were close with outside of daycare was leaving earlier than that. We get an email introduction to new main teachers either right before or the day they start. While our center has high turnover of floaters, we rarely lose leads or main teachers, and when we do, they're usually being transferred to another location, into a more behind-the-scenes role (curriculum development, etc), or, for some of the teachers of the preK age, into a school system.

Organization-wise, our center can be kind of chaotic at times, but it always looks like CONTROLLED chaos. At the least, the teachers never seem to look frazzled, so even when all of the kids are freaking out about something, the teachers look calm and give the appearance of having some plan to get things back on track.

[redheadbaker]

We've always gotten notice when lead or assistant teachers leave or move rooms, floaters not so much. We've gotten advance notice of teachers leaving two times, no notice a third time.

[fortnightlily]

Our center is also pretty bad at admin/communication. We do get weekly-ish newsletters, but we pretty much never get notified about staffing changes. The lead teacher usually isn't there during drop-off or pick-up, so she's gone on vacation for like 2 weeks and I didn't even know

But they're great about most everything else.

[countthestars]

I would expect to hear about the lead teacher but no one else at my center. I would WANT to know more though (who is moving rooms, leaving) and I don't think you are wrong for asking.

on DD's first day in the preschool room I went to pick her up and her room was empty. Apparently they combine with the 3s and 4s in the afternoon and DD's teacher goes home. Which, ok, but it would have been nice to know that. Esp because DD has some anxiety and I like to prep her for changes to her routine.

[ellipses84]

I hope the new teacher works out and there's not so much turnover. Unfortunately, we experienced quite a bit of turnover at our old, big DC center. Their communication was horrible, so I'm just here to commiserate. I had a lot of hope in the new director and they'd go through periods of good communication but it never lasted.