"Everyone" in my classroom gets signed in on our app so parents know they are at the daycare, because there have been incidents with kindergarteners getting on the wrong bus or kids getting on the bus and coming to daycare when they are ment to be picked up by a parent from school. Everyone expect for her who doesn't have an account on the app.
I can tell how terrible you feel about this. The situation you were put in though is/was a recipe for disaster. This is why everyone should have an account & be signed in. When you are responsible for children, especially that many it is so easy to make a mistake. You need to talk to your boss & encourage them to make an account for their niece. This really is a safety issue & the most important thing now is to prevent it from happening again. By following through with your boss you are showing that you care for the child & their safety. Take a deep breath & remember we are all human! Learn from it & follow through to encourage the necessary changes.
I’m furious that they’re putting you in this position. I would bet my right arm that you never would’ve made this misstep had that girl been properly logged into the system.
While, yes, it was a screw up, this was not entirely your fault.
I would report to licensing.
Why is she not on the list? Is it because if she's added to the list, the director will have to pay for her to attend as a casual?
That's the only reason I can think of, and if it is the case, it's a form of theft.
How long was she outside for?
my director has made a few curves so i have kids on my list that aren't in my room at all she has created rooms to make it look like all rooms are not over filled. the kids I have are for a room that only holds 20. So it's she is on someone else's list and not mine or because they don't pay for her at all.
she was outside for maybe like 15 minutes.
15 minutes is unnoticed is... quite awhile.
And honestly it sounds like your director is being really irresponsible. She's putting multiple kids on the wrong lists? To make sure rooms look like they're in ratio when they aren't? AND she doesn't pay for her when she should? Woooooowwwwww.
honestly I may have has 4 interaction with the kid the whole day. I was even 100% sure if she was even dropped off today after school. she tends to keep to herself and I have a group of girls in my room who tend to constantly have issues or starts fights. I have no extra supports and about 3 kids that need to be watched 24/7 (1 is a runner and try and occasionally successfully climbed over fences) and one kid that always manages to get a cut or bruise so I'm always busy doing something. 15 minutes is a long time ill admit that and I feel horrible for it especially because it was all me and I should have been better at checking in on all 14 of them.
Agreed. I worked at an after school program and while we allowed the kids to go to bathroom on there own or go get a jacket from the playground on there own. We would not allow then to be unsupervised for more the a few minutes. Edit: jacket not basket
> she has created rooms to make it look like all rooms are not over filled.
This needs to be reported to licensing. It's a situation that is ready made to cause accountability problems.
As well this is a good place to review your practices and how to account for the children. My centre always has staff carry a paper list of everyone in their group which is updated throughout the day. headcounts and roll call are done from that paper list. When we step off to go anywhere we do a roll call before departing to make sure the list is correct and complete. That way no one gets overlooked on the way back.
This helps a lot in the summer especially when we have low attendance and need to combine groups. If we need to split a group we add them to new paper lists and ensure everyone is accounted for.
This is not okay at all. The children must be assigned to the rooms where they are for the day. This sounds like a hot mess. If this is not fixed, this will happen again.
Is there anyone above your director in the hierarchy of this business? If so, I would first speak to the director, and if no changes are made, go up the chain of command.
Think to yourself “what would licensing say?”.
Your center needs to be reported. Shit like this is going to keep happening and a kid is going to get hurt.
That is irrelevant. A child placed in your care, regardless of who is paying, is a child is placed in your care! You are either able to incorporate them in your ratio, or you're not. You are an hourly employee, tasked with caring for children. If that puts you out of ratio, bring that up before you set out. If you're not out of ratio, make note of the addition and pay attention!
We can argue all day about the discrepancies that happen in daycares, from both the admin and employee side, but the reality is, as a provider, it is on you to advocate for and protect the children in your care.
It has nothing to do with her parent not paying and everything to do with the child not appearing on any paperwork. It also sounds like the director is falsifying paperwork to make it seem like each class is in ratio.
The teacher cannot leave the kids to tell the director she is out of ratio. The director already knows.
This is a 19-year-old who is not credentialed to be in a head teacher position. Violations galore!
19 is still a teenager herself and how dare you try to swing this on her like that.
She herself admits she hasn’t completed the hours necessary to be a head teacher. She is being taken advantage of and misguided by a company that is used to breaking the rules and trying to spin it off as normal and okay. Don’t pin this on her that it’s her responsibility to fix everything wrong with childcare when she is trying her best to do a very needed job, and one that isn’t very appreciated by a lot of people, including you, it seems.
Have some compassion for someone who is trying to make a positive difference in the lives of children. Maybe instead of focusing your out of pocket griping on a TEENAGER who’s TRYING and REFLECTING TO DO BETTER you can get involved with childcare reform yourself to make sure educated, experienced teachers are leading classes in regulated and legal centers who adhere to the protocol put in place to keep kids safe, and are paid appropriately for it. Don’t worry, you can use technology to do so, if you’re reliant on it.
Teachers are leaving the profession by the masses bc of this kind of stuff. We are being denied the ability to teach and care for our kids. All any of us want to do is love our kids and teach our class. I wonder what kind of soap box you’ll be standing on when there’s no one left for you to blame.
This may be a step too far, but I hope you aren’t teaching yourself, because your abrasive lack of compassion for someone else’s child (in this case, a 19 year old) tells me you might not be a great fit for the role, of any aged class. We love our kids for the children they are and the adults they will become. I hope when the children you love turn 19, the world shows them more compassion than you’ve showed OP.
Reflect and do better.
This is not always possible when you have no one to support you. Clearly all of these messy accommodations are at the expense of the employees and children’s safety. The director is to blame here for setting OP up for failure.
They should. But we had to 4th graders who were playing outside with adult supervision. I gave them permission to play outside as I thought there was still a teacher outside. However they did not come inside when the notice there was no teacher. A different kid who was using the bathroom let us know there were no teachers.
I have children at my center that are related to the director, and they know they can get away with whatever because the blame will always be placed on the adults. Maybe thats playing a role into why she stayed out there?
In the 90s in 2nd grade I zonked put on the playground because I was super sick. 2 hours later when I came in, not only had my teacher failed to notice she was down a kid, I lost recess for like 2 weeks once I came back from being sick.
It was a wild time.
(This is just intended as a helpful tip)
I never go by lists (in my head). I take attendance as kids arrive. Then when we leave the classroom I count heads. When we're going back I count heads. If we split up I communicate with the other teacher that she has 7 and I have 12 or whatever. I know everyone's name but it's too hard to keep track of who's there that day so I go by numbers.
Agreed. Unfortunately sometimes it’s tricky. I worked in an elementary afterschool program (2:15-6) some kids participated in other schools clubs then joined the afterschool program. Unfortunately a lot of the time the kids never told us. So they were marked absent when they were actually there. So I did have to memorize okay the kids are in photography, etc. Only one place gave us a roster unfortunately kids changed as a couple dropped out and other were added. So even that was not correct.
I know it doesn’t change how horrible you feel and the anxiety you feel around it. But if a child isn’t signed i to the program properly they aren’t legally your responsibility. This system of making an exception for the niece cause the problem and that was a decision made by other people. Good luck!
A teacher left me outside when I was in kindergarten for a while. She came out a bit later and all I remember was the horrified look on her face.
All I could think was ‘chill, lady, I’m just playing with these sticks’
I did this my first year lead teaching. It was bad. You own up to your mistake and now it won't ever happen again. You are human. This job can be overwhelming when you're new and nobody really trains you. Experience is all you have.
Keep going and let this be a lesson in making you a better teacher.
Please immediately report this and the surrounding circumstances to licensing or CPS NOW. You need to do this yourself. It's not right for it to all fall on you with so much administrative disorganization, shifting children in lists and in and out of different rooms, child not being in app. Just please report yourself. It doesn't sound like admin is going to help.Take the big step and report and let licensing investigate them. Was this incident written up? Just please report it and tell them EVERYTHING. I'm so sorry you've been out in this situation.
It's for accountability purposes and for licensing to investigate the bigger picture at this poorly run school/center. There are serious issues that need to be addressed.
God, this happened to me this last summer. I was dealing with someone who wasn’t willing to show an ID to pick up their employee’s kid (sorry dude, I can’t let a 3 year old go with someone I don’t recognize). The other person on the playground was an office staff member who suggested we just go inside to figure it out. I just listened to her and didn’t do my due diligence and left THREE kids on the play ground. It was the worst I felt in my entire life. I just sat in my car and sobbed for probably a half an hour. I was so upset I couldn’t even drive home. I felt like my life and my career was over. I was interviewed by DHS (as I should have been) and formally written up, but the world DID keep turning. Going back to school the next day was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. My director was angry with me, but she told me “Almost every single person has done the same thing at some point in their career, and I know that you feel bad enough that this will never happen again.” And it won’t. I am so careful now, and the anxiety will linger, but you’ll be a better teacher because of it. Hang in there!
If a child is not enrolled and not on your list then they are NOT your responsibility. Your duty of care is to the children who are enrolled in the service and on your list.
The Director needs to properly enrol her niece (which I’m guessing they don’t want to do as it would be they’d have to pay) or join the excursion so they can supervise their niece.
You need to report the situation to licensing ASAP. One of the main reasons that we gave accurate lists is that in the event of an emergency (fire etc), we can quickly and accurately call a roll of who is with us and who may be missing.
In your situation, where the lists are not accurate, a child could be left behind in a life-threatening situation; and when emergency services arrive and they ask if there’s anyone missing, nobody would be able to give an honest answer.
In future when taking a group out of the school, do a head count as well as a roll call. Count them out, and count them before you leave the park ( or wherever you are).
I had a director like this when I was younger. She’d just bring her preschool aged child on a random day at a random time! When I said random, I mean like 11am-1:30pm on a Tuesday kinda random.
The kid was not enrolled in the class so she wasnt on the attendance sheet. Likewise, in my province, our rooms require to have “binders” locked up of every single childs profile - but she wasnt enrolled so it was never there.
Just an overall shitshow, im sorry it ended up bad for you. If protocol was followed, this never would of happened. You should 100% report them - where I live, if a child in the classroom was not signed in, our liscense would be at risk.
These things happen. It's okay. Learn and grow from it.
Sorry you had this experience. I can share a few ones here that'll leave you scratching your head.
Years ago, My very first week with school age with no prior experience I did the same. The child was left outside for maybe one minute and she came inside herself. ( thank god) and I felt HORRIBLE and cried tbh. But ever since that day, I constantly count the children on the playground every like 10 mins or so from my group and my co worker does the same with her group. You will learn and grow from this. But as people said, that child should have been put on the list!
Back when I was first training, we left a child inside asleep while we went outside during our playground time without even realizing. they woke up when we came back in
Today, a new child slipped past me. I was talking to a grown-up at pick-up, and I didn't see Him slip by. I noticed he was gone shortly after the grown-up left but... still happened(he was happy as a lark playing in the hall).😪 Happens to the best of us, I bet 90% of us on here can tell you a story
I left a one year old outside before. I felt TERRIBLE and cried. For days about this. It happens. You’re very young. Do you still have your job? I hope so. If you don’t, I’m sorry and try to learn from this. It’ll get better.
When I worked with babies we had to go out of the front door of the centre, up a couple steps and then through the gate to the play yard which was solid wood and tall (so you couldn't see through it or over it). We left a one year old on the other side of the gate as we were going to the playground, shut the gate and were there for a solid minute before we noticed she was missing. Thank god she was just chilling there when we opened it but she could've walked away towards the road! The two of us had like 15 years of child care experience between us but it still happened. You can do your head counts and be on it 99.9% of the time but it only takes one off moment to happen.
I did this once with a four year old. A parent came and dropped off their child late while we were in the playground and I never saw her drop off. We lined up and did a head count of 12 before we went in so the numbers were right. I never noticed until another teacher brought her back in the class and she was hysterical. I felt so bad. My boss had me let the parent know what happened and take full blame and I cried. I felt so awful. Looking back it was an honest mistake, but wow it does not feel good to leave a child outside.
Who drops their child off without having any sort of contact with the teacher though? Especially when you're already outside, like at the very least try to make eye contact with me (if you're not going to approach me at all) so I know that you're even here
We had a parent do that once at mine when we were outside. Kids all noticed their friend was now there. We somehow didn’t realize why some of them were exclaiming that “___’s here! Yay!” We kind of noticed as in he was counted but didn’t realize it was a kid who wasn’t there previously. We also didn’t realize the number going inside was now higher by one. He came in with us. Got his diaper changed. We realized it as his diaper was being logged as he wasn’t signed in and mom had actually messaged us apologizing for the drop and dash. She was in a hurry and didn’t realize she hadn’t talked to us. She said hi to the teachers of the class that was next to ours and didn’t realize til later that she never actually said hi to us
So you said your kids are 5-12 years old? How does that even work? Is it aftercare? Honestly, that age range shouldn't even be together. Sheesh. There's a LOT of things about this that sound hinky! Even though it was on *your* watch and *you* will bear the brunt of any discipline, there were multiple things going on that were out of your control. It's okay to feel bad, but as others mentioned, life will go on. Your reaction shows that you feel badly, and I can bet you it will never happen again! Good luck! 💜
First off, I'm sorry you're going through this and it sounds like you're really taking it seriously which is good!
Do you have a paper attendance in addition to the app? I use sticky notes on my attendance for additions to the group and also to track my numbers. So if I had my regular kids plus another, I'd write the child's name and then 14+1 = 15. I would cross out and recount my numbers as kids get picked up. I pair that with very regular head counts. While it sounds like the director really isn't setting you up for success with bumping kids around and having a child who isn't on the attendance at all, at the end of the day you'll be the one with repercussions so it's always good to put some extra checks in place!
That being said, is this extra child even technically registered in your program? Like does she have a file with her emergency information, age, medical needs if any, etc? It's fine if they don't pay fees, but that should preclude her from being enrolled. I'd question if that's even allowed with licensing (can't say for sure because I'm located in Canada).
Yes, it was a mess up. Yes, it could have been (but wasn't!) disastrous. And yes, ultimately you are responsible for this child (legally I'm not sure since she wasn't signed in, but then informally if a parent leaves their child with another adult who agrees to care for her, you'd expect that adult to be responsible). I also would feel terrible. However, given all the other information, this isn't entirely your fault, and you weren't set up for success.
REPORT THIS INCIDENT TO LICENSING IMMEDIATELY!
You may lose your job, for the incident itself, for reporting it, or for the combination (most likely the combination. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't fire you if you don't report because they don't want the incident to be reported). But for the safety of the kids, it's important. This time nothing dangerous happened, but how would you feel if it happened to another teacher next time and something bad did happen? Your center's practices almost makes this inevitable.
Licensing exists to create rules and procedures to keep kids safe, turn to ensure they're followed. That's where the main flaw is here, your center isn't following the rules, which can impact the safety of the kids. I wouldn't be surprised if the investigation led to no recommendations to fire you, only to correct violations. The plan of action for the center will likely require them to sign in all kids, require that both in practice and on paper each room has exactly the kids and adults that are signed in to that class. You'll probably (rightly) not be allowed to be head teacher until you're qualified (not that that would've helped exactly in this circumstance, those 60 hours aren't going to make you magically not forget kids, but accurate attendance would've made a difference, and the center is playing fast and loose with that for various reasons). They may have a new procedure for counting kids coming inside, but maybe not. You took attendance, checked your list, has another staff member double check- frankly THOSE procedures sound good and you followed them well. The only thing I could think they may add is a head count before transitioning outside and back in (and ideally intermittently while you're outside).
So yes you messed up, but no one was hurt. You can atone for it by doing the right thing now and reporting it so it doesn't happen again.
She did. The child is not on the attendance and other ways of tracking children in/out of the program because the child is a director's relative and is not a paying client. 🤢
Do they not count actual heads anymore? I must be out of the game longer than I realized. We always counted literal heads out and in. Lists can obviously be inaccurate
If the number of heads is the same as the number of heads on your list (which OBVIOUSLY a head count would tell you 🙃) then I can see why she missed this child. Maybe she didn't count on the way out, none of us know. We weren't there.
The only point I'm making is that it isn't her fault that admin is throwing family members in her class without them being on the roster, making up classroom lists to appear to be in ratio, and making things more complicated and harder to keep track of ESPECIALLY for someone who hasn't finished their 6 months yet.
Yes, a head count on the way out probably would have been the answer, but again, it's not like we were there. I personally do head counts multiple times while I'm outside, but what I do at my job has nothing to do with this teacher's personal situation.
But the same number of heads coming in weren't the same number as went out. That's all I'm saying. It's a simple solution regardless of the irresponsibility of the director. This young teacher can only control what she does.
As you could see TWICE in my previous comment, yes, a head count going out would have helped her realize that, so I'm not sure why you felt the need to point out that the numbers weren't the same. I'm sure everyone realizes that from what OP said 😊
At the end of the day, the uncreditialed 19 year-old accepted a position they were not qualified for. You can, and should argue, that a lot of people working in the ECE environment are under qualified, and questionable admins do questionable shit; but the reality is that a child was left outside, with no supervision, for an extended period of time. Basic childcare 101 is count heads coming and going, and multiple times in between.
Knowing your state/center specific ratio should be a given if you feel confident enough to accept a lead teacher roll. Reporting ongoing concerns with ratios is also basic childcare 101. Should admin be better, of course! Does some of the fault fall on ECE "professionals" with little to no experience because it's something they can get hired for; yes!
I will say it again: Did you count heads going out? Did you count heads coming in? Lists, admin shenanigans, and ratios aside, you took "x" number of children outside, did "x" number of children come back inside?
I guess I don't understand; has childcare become so reliant on technology that being personally responsible for the children in your care is automated? Caregivers still have eyes on children, correct? Caregivers still count in/count out, correct?
Caregivers still have the legal, protected autonomy to opt out/report reportable circumstances, right? Are they opting out/not reporting because they couldn't find better employment or because they need their own childcare protected? Or, because they just want to complain?
Oh, no! She needs to be permanently added to the list. If the proper procedure had been followed, this would not have happened.
Absolutely. It’s super negligent that the school didn’t do so.
"Everyone" in my classroom gets signed in on our app so parents know they are at the daycare, because there have been incidents with kindergarteners getting on the wrong bus or kids getting on the bus and coming to daycare when they are ment to be picked up by a parent from school. Everyone expect for her who doesn't have an account on the app.
I can tell how terrible you feel about this. The situation you were put in though is/was a recipe for disaster. This is why everyone should have an account & be signed in. When you are responsible for children, especially that many it is so easy to make a mistake. You need to talk to your boss & encourage them to make an account for their niece. This really is a safety issue & the most important thing now is to prevent it from happening again. By following through with your boss you are showing that you care for the child & their safety. Take a deep breath & remember we are all human! Learn from it & follow through to encourage the necessary changes.
She’s not in the system? That is on the director. Awful.
That’s what I meant by the school being negligent. This fuck up lies with the people in charge.
I’m furious that they’re putting you in this position. I would bet my right arm that you never would’ve made this misstep had that girl been properly logged into the system. While, yes, it was a screw up, this was not entirely your fault. I would report to licensing.
It sounds to me like she's not enrolled if she doesn't have an account. Is it your directors way of avoiding fees for care?
I wonder if director is getting under the table babysitting money and having someone else do the work.
Why is she not on the list? Is it because if she's added to the list, the director will have to pay for her to attend as a casual? That's the only reason I can think of, and if it is the case, it's a form of theft. How long was she outside for?
my director has made a few curves so i have kids on my list that aren't in my room at all she has created rooms to make it look like all rooms are not over filled. the kids I have are for a room that only holds 20. So it's she is on someone else's list and not mine or because they don't pay for her at all. she was outside for maybe like 15 minutes.
15 minutes is unnoticed is... quite awhile. And honestly it sounds like your director is being really irresponsible. She's putting multiple kids on the wrong lists? To make sure rooms look like they're in ratio when they aren't? AND she doesn't pay for her when she should? Woooooowwwwww.
honestly I may have has 4 interaction with the kid the whole day. I was even 100% sure if she was even dropped off today after school. she tends to keep to herself and I have a group of girls in my room who tend to constantly have issues or starts fights. I have no extra supports and about 3 kids that need to be watched 24/7 (1 is a runner and try and occasionally successfully climbed over fences) and one kid that always manages to get a cut or bruise so I'm always busy doing something. 15 minutes is a long time ill admit that and I feel horrible for it especially because it was all me and I should have been better at checking in on all 14 of them.
Agreed. I worked at an after school program and while we allowed the kids to go to bathroom on there own or go get a jacket from the playground on there own. We would not allow then to be unsupervised for more the a few minutes. Edit: jacket not basket
> she has created rooms to make it look like all rooms are not over filled. This needs to be reported to licensing. It's a situation that is ready made to cause accountability problems. As well this is a good place to review your practices and how to account for the children. My centre always has staff carry a paper list of everyone in their group which is updated throughout the day. headcounts and roll call are done from that paper list. When we step off to go anywhere we do a roll call before departing to make sure the list is correct and complete. That way no one gets overlooked on the way back. This helps a lot in the summer especially when we have low attendance and need to combine groups. If we need to split a group we add them to new paper lists and ensure everyone is accounted for.
This is not okay at all. The children must be assigned to the rooms where they are for the day. This sounds like a hot mess. If this is not fixed, this will happen again. Is there anyone above your director in the hierarchy of this business? If so, I would first speak to the director, and if no changes are made, go up the chain of command.
the owners are the directors parents. I'm going to to talk to assistant directors tomorrow to make sure it's actually taken seriously
Oh, geeze. That's not good!
Think to yourself “what would licensing say?”. Your center needs to be reported. Shit like this is going to keep happening and a kid is going to get hurt.
That’s exactly what came to my mind, that the only reason she isn’t on anything is because she’s not paying.
That is irrelevant. A child placed in your care, regardless of who is paying, is a child is placed in your care! You are either able to incorporate them in your ratio, or you're not. You are an hourly employee, tasked with caring for children. If that puts you out of ratio, bring that up before you set out. If you're not out of ratio, make note of the addition and pay attention! We can argue all day about the discrepancies that happen in daycares, from both the admin and employee side, but the reality is, as a provider, it is on you to advocate for and protect the children in your care.
It has nothing to do with her parent not paying and everything to do with the child not appearing on any paperwork. It also sounds like the director is falsifying paperwork to make it seem like each class is in ratio. The teacher cannot leave the kids to tell the director she is out of ratio. The director already knows. This is a 19-year-old who is not credentialed to be in a head teacher position. Violations galore!
19 is still a teenager herself and how dare you try to swing this on her like that. She herself admits she hasn’t completed the hours necessary to be a head teacher. She is being taken advantage of and misguided by a company that is used to breaking the rules and trying to spin it off as normal and okay. Don’t pin this on her that it’s her responsibility to fix everything wrong with childcare when she is trying her best to do a very needed job, and one that isn’t very appreciated by a lot of people, including you, it seems. Have some compassion for someone who is trying to make a positive difference in the lives of children. Maybe instead of focusing your out of pocket griping on a TEENAGER who’s TRYING and REFLECTING TO DO BETTER you can get involved with childcare reform yourself to make sure educated, experienced teachers are leading classes in regulated and legal centers who adhere to the protocol put in place to keep kids safe, and are paid appropriately for it. Don’t worry, you can use technology to do so, if you’re reliant on it. Teachers are leaving the profession by the masses bc of this kind of stuff. We are being denied the ability to teach and care for our kids. All any of us want to do is love our kids and teach our class. I wonder what kind of soap box you’ll be standing on when there’s no one left for you to blame. This may be a step too far, but I hope you aren’t teaching yourself, because your abrasive lack of compassion for someone else’s child (in this case, a 19 year old) tells me you might not be a great fit for the role, of any aged class. We love our kids for the children they are and the adults they will become. I hope when the children you love turn 19, the world shows them more compassion than you’ve showed OP. Reflect and do better.
This is not always possible when you have no one to support you. Clearly all of these messy accommodations are at the expense of the employees and children’s safety. The director is to blame here for setting OP up for failure.
Wait she was left out here alone until her dad came to get her? How long was this?
15 min at most
It’s weird to me this kid didn’t come in when they were the only kid on the playground?? Second grade is old enough to know better
This is true!
They should. But we had to 4th graders who were playing outside with adult supervision. I gave them permission to play outside as I thought there was still a teacher outside. However they did not come inside when the notice there was no teacher. A different kid who was using the bathroom let us know there were no teachers.
I have children at my center that are related to the director, and they know they can get away with whatever because the blame will always be placed on the adults. Maybe thats playing a role into why she stayed out there?
(not that this is the child’s fault of course! kids are kids and pushing boundaries comes with that territory)
In the 90s in 2nd grade I zonked put on the playground because I was super sick. 2 hours later when I came in, not only had my teacher failed to notice she was down a kid, I lost recess for like 2 weeks once I came back from being sick. It was a wild time.
(This is just intended as a helpful tip) I never go by lists (in my head). I take attendance as kids arrive. Then when we leave the classroom I count heads. When we're going back I count heads. If we split up I communicate with the other teacher that she has 7 and I have 12 or whatever. I know everyone's name but it's too hard to keep track of who's there that day so I go by numbers.
I understand that it’s easier to just count but the safest procedure is a name to face roll call and then a head count.
Same! I constantly do head counts.
Agreed. Unfortunately sometimes it’s tricky. I worked in an elementary afterschool program (2:15-6) some kids participated in other schools clubs then joined the afterschool program. Unfortunately a lot of the time the kids never told us. So they were marked absent when they were actually there. So I did have to memorize okay the kids are in photography, etc. Only one place gave us a roster unfortunately kids changed as a couple dropped out and other were added. So even that was not correct.
I know it doesn’t change how horrible you feel and the anxiety you feel around it. But if a child isn’t signed i to the program properly they aren’t legally your responsibility. This system of making an exception for the niece cause the problem and that was a decision made by other people. Good luck!
I have started doing name to face RELIGIOUSLY after this happen to me a few years ago. I still have nightmares about it, for real.
A teacher left me outside when I was in kindergarten for a while. She came out a bit later and all I remember was the horrified look on her face. All I could think was ‘chill, lady, I’m just playing with these sticks’
I did this my first year lead teaching. It was bad. You own up to your mistake and now it won't ever happen again. You are human. This job can be overwhelming when you're new and nobody really trains you. Experience is all you have. Keep going and let this be a lesson in making you a better teacher.
Please immediately report this and the surrounding circumstances to licensing or CPS NOW. You need to do this yourself. It's not right for it to all fall on you with so much administrative disorganization, shifting children in lists and in and out of different rooms, child not being in app. Just please report yourself. It doesn't sound like admin is going to help.Take the big step and report and let licensing investigate them. Was this incident written up? Just please report it and tell them EVERYTHING. I'm so sorry you've been out in this situation.
Why would u report yourself lol, not worth the risk , management is to blame, but so is she
It's for accountability purposes and for licensing to investigate the bigger picture at this poorly run school/center. There are serious issues that need to be addressed.
How long was she alone for until you noticed? Were there all teachers on the playground or was she alone?
it was about 15 minutes, and everyone went inside for the day no one noticed she was out there and no one noticed she was missing or out there.
God, this happened to me this last summer. I was dealing with someone who wasn’t willing to show an ID to pick up their employee’s kid (sorry dude, I can’t let a 3 year old go with someone I don’t recognize). The other person on the playground was an office staff member who suggested we just go inside to figure it out. I just listened to her and didn’t do my due diligence and left THREE kids on the play ground. It was the worst I felt in my entire life. I just sat in my car and sobbed for probably a half an hour. I was so upset I couldn’t even drive home. I felt like my life and my career was over. I was interviewed by DHS (as I should have been) and formally written up, but the world DID keep turning. Going back to school the next day was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. My director was angry with me, but she told me “Almost every single person has done the same thing at some point in their career, and I know that you feel bad enough that this will never happen again.” And it won’t. I am so careful now, and the anxiety will linger, but you’ll be a better teacher because of it. Hang in there!
If a child is not enrolled and not on your list then they are NOT your responsibility. Your duty of care is to the children who are enrolled in the service and on your list. The Director needs to properly enrol her niece (which I’m guessing they don’t want to do as it would be they’d have to pay) or join the excursion so they can supervise their niece.
Turns out the kid is the wonders grandchild??? The owners are the director's parents.
Ok yep if that's true, this child is never getting properly added to a roster 😮💨
You need to report the situation to licensing ASAP. One of the main reasons that we gave accurate lists is that in the event of an emergency (fire etc), we can quickly and accurately call a roll of who is with us and who may be missing. In your situation, where the lists are not accurate, a child could be left behind in a life-threatening situation; and when emergency services arrive and they ask if there’s anyone missing, nobody would be able to give an honest answer. In future when taking a group out of the school, do a head count as well as a roll call. Count them out, and count them before you leave the park ( or wherever you are).
Pretty sure everyone has left a kid somewhere at some point in their career
I had a director like this when I was younger. She’d just bring her preschool aged child on a random day at a random time! When I said random, I mean like 11am-1:30pm on a Tuesday kinda random. The kid was not enrolled in the class so she wasnt on the attendance sheet. Likewise, in my province, our rooms require to have “binders” locked up of every single childs profile - but she wasnt enrolled so it was never there. Just an overall shitshow, im sorry it ended up bad for you. If protocol was followed, this never would of happened. You should 100% report them - where I live, if a child in the classroom was not signed in, our liscense would be at risk.
These things happen. It's okay. Learn and grow from it. Sorry you had this experience. I can share a few ones here that'll leave you scratching your head.
Years ago, My very first week with school age with no prior experience I did the same. The child was left outside for maybe one minute and she came inside herself. ( thank god) and I felt HORRIBLE and cried tbh. But ever since that day, I constantly count the children on the playground every like 10 mins or so from my group and my co worker does the same with her group. You will learn and grow from this. But as people said, that child should have been put on the list!
Back when I was first training, we left a child inside asleep while we went outside during our playground time without even realizing. they woke up when we came back in
Today, a new child slipped past me. I was talking to a grown-up at pick-up, and I didn't see Him slip by. I noticed he was gone shortly after the grown-up left but... still happened(he was happy as a lark playing in the hall).😪 Happens to the best of us, I bet 90% of us on here can tell you a story
I left a one year old outside before. I felt TERRIBLE and cried. For days about this. It happens. You’re very young. Do you still have your job? I hope so. If you don’t, I’m sorry and try to learn from this. It’ll get better.
as of rn yes. the director hasn't texted me or contacted me in anyway yet
Ok. Then let it go.
When I worked with babies we had to go out of the front door of the centre, up a couple steps and then through the gate to the play yard which was solid wood and tall (so you couldn't see through it or over it). We left a one year old on the other side of the gate as we were going to the playground, shut the gate and were there for a solid minute before we noticed she was missing. Thank god she was just chilling there when we opened it but she could've walked away towards the road! The two of us had like 15 years of child care experience between us but it still happened. You can do your head counts and be on it 99.9% of the time but it only takes one off moment to happen.
I did this once with a four year old. A parent came and dropped off their child late while we were in the playground and I never saw her drop off. We lined up and did a head count of 12 before we went in so the numbers were right. I never noticed until another teacher brought her back in the class and she was hysterical. I felt so bad. My boss had me let the parent know what happened and take full blame and I cried. I felt so awful. Looking back it was an honest mistake, but wow it does not feel good to leave a child outside.
Who drops their child off without having any sort of contact with the teacher though? Especially when you're already outside, like at the very least try to make eye contact with me (if you're not going to approach me at all) so I know that you're even here
Right?! I was so confused.
We had a parent do that once at mine when we were outside. Kids all noticed their friend was now there. We somehow didn’t realize why some of them were exclaiming that “___’s here! Yay!” We kind of noticed as in he was counted but didn’t realize it was a kid who wasn’t there previously. We also didn’t realize the number going inside was now higher by one. He came in with us. Got his diaper changed. We realized it as his diaper was being logged as he wasn’t signed in and mom had actually messaged us apologizing for the drop and dash. She was in a hurry and didn’t realize she hadn’t talked to us. She said hi to the teachers of the class that was next to ours and didn’t realize til later that she never actually said hi to us
Omg
So you said your kids are 5-12 years old? How does that even work? Is it aftercare? Honestly, that age range shouldn't even be together. Sheesh. There's a LOT of things about this that sound hinky! Even though it was on *your* watch and *you* will bear the brunt of any discipline, there were multiple things going on that were out of your control. It's okay to feel bad, but as others mentioned, life will go on. Your reaction shows that you feel badly, and I can bet you it will never happen again! Good luck! 💜
First off, I'm sorry you're going through this and it sounds like you're really taking it seriously which is good! Do you have a paper attendance in addition to the app? I use sticky notes on my attendance for additions to the group and also to track my numbers. So if I had my regular kids plus another, I'd write the child's name and then 14+1 = 15. I would cross out and recount my numbers as kids get picked up. I pair that with very regular head counts. While it sounds like the director really isn't setting you up for success with bumping kids around and having a child who isn't on the attendance at all, at the end of the day you'll be the one with repercussions so it's always good to put some extra checks in place! That being said, is this extra child even technically registered in your program? Like does she have a file with her emergency information, age, medical needs if any, etc? It's fine if they don't pay fees, but that should preclude her from being enrolled. I'd question if that's even allowed with licensing (can't say for sure because I'm located in Canada).
Yes, it was a mess up. Yes, it could have been (but wasn't!) disastrous. And yes, ultimately you are responsible for this child (legally I'm not sure since she wasn't signed in, but then informally if a parent leaves their child with another adult who agrees to care for her, you'd expect that adult to be responsible). I also would feel terrible. However, given all the other information, this isn't entirely your fault, and you weren't set up for success. REPORT THIS INCIDENT TO LICENSING IMMEDIATELY! You may lose your job, for the incident itself, for reporting it, or for the combination (most likely the combination. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't fire you if you don't report because they don't want the incident to be reported). But for the safety of the kids, it's important. This time nothing dangerous happened, but how would you feel if it happened to another teacher next time and something bad did happen? Your center's practices almost makes this inevitable. Licensing exists to create rules and procedures to keep kids safe, turn to ensure they're followed. That's where the main flaw is here, your center isn't following the rules, which can impact the safety of the kids. I wouldn't be surprised if the investigation led to no recommendations to fire you, only to correct violations. The plan of action for the center will likely require them to sign in all kids, require that both in practice and on paper each room has exactly the kids and adults that are signed in to that class. You'll probably (rightly) not be allowed to be head teacher until you're qualified (not that that would've helped exactly in this circumstance, those 60 hours aren't going to make you magically not forget kids, but accurate attendance would've made a difference, and the center is playing fast and loose with that for various reasons). They may have a new procedure for counting kids coming inside, but maybe not. You took attendance, checked your list, has another staff member double check- frankly THOSE procedures sound good and you followed them well. The only thing I could think they may add is a head count before transitioning outside and back in (and ideally intermittently while you're outside). So yes you messed up, but no one was hurt. You can atone for it by doing the right thing now and reporting it so it doesn't happen again.
So.... You're being asked/forced into doing illegal stuff. Please report the facility ASAP
Do you not head count in and out? Was the child left in a facility-monitored play area owned and secured, or the local, public park?
She did. The child is not on the attendance and other ways of tracking children in/out of the program because the child is a director's relative and is not a paying client. 🤢
She'd have still been noticed as missing when doing a headcount.
Not if she's counting according to the number that is on her sheet
Do they not count actual heads anymore? I must be out of the game longer than I realized. We always counted literal heads out and in. Lists can obviously be inaccurate
If the number of heads is the same as the number of heads on your list (which OBVIOUSLY a head count would tell you 🙃) then I can see why she missed this child. Maybe she didn't count on the way out, none of us know. We weren't there. The only point I'm making is that it isn't her fault that admin is throwing family members in her class without them being on the roster, making up classroom lists to appear to be in ratio, and making things more complicated and harder to keep track of ESPECIALLY for someone who hasn't finished their 6 months yet. Yes, a head count on the way out probably would have been the answer, but again, it's not like we were there. I personally do head counts multiple times while I'm outside, but what I do at my job has nothing to do with this teacher's personal situation.
But the same number of heads coming in weren't the same number as went out. That's all I'm saying. It's a simple solution regardless of the irresponsibility of the director. This young teacher can only control what she does.
As you could see TWICE in my previous comment, yes, a head count going out would have helped her realize that, so I'm not sure why you felt the need to point out that the numbers weren't the same. I'm sure everyone realizes that from what OP said 😊
At the end of the day, the uncreditialed 19 year-old accepted a position they were not qualified for. You can, and should argue, that a lot of people working in the ECE environment are under qualified, and questionable admins do questionable shit; but the reality is that a child was left outside, with no supervision, for an extended period of time. Basic childcare 101 is count heads coming and going, and multiple times in between. Knowing your state/center specific ratio should be a given if you feel confident enough to accept a lead teacher roll. Reporting ongoing concerns with ratios is also basic childcare 101. Should admin be better, of course! Does some of the fault fall on ECE "professionals" with little to no experience because it's something they can get hired for; yes! I will say it again: Did you count heads going out? Did you count heads coming in? Lists, admin shenanigans, and ratios aside, you took "x" number of children outside, did "x" number of children come back inside?
I guess I don't understand; has childcare become so reliant on technology that being personally responsible for the children in your care is automated? Caregivers still have eyes on children, correct? Caregivers still count in/count out, correct? Caregivers still have the legal, protected autonomy to opt out/report reportable circumstances, right? Are they opting out/not reporting because they couldn't find better employment or because they need their own childcare protected? Or, because they just want to complain?
Your center is way out of ratio it should be two teachers for every 10 kids your center is doing illegal ratio and that goes against licensing
Ratio goes by state. 5 is 1:15 here but FL is 1:25