Print the value of index0
Knowledge Learning Corperation/kindercare Neglective Child Care Facility Clearwater Florida
After working in Childcare for a total of 5 years, I was astounded to see the lack of attention and care given in the Kindercare facility I worked in. I love children and always have. When I grew up, my mother had a licensed home daycare so that she could stay home with her own children and provide excellent child care for those mothers who couldn't. So when I grew up I also wanted to work in child care. When I was in College I worked for Head Start and after College I worked in a public school in Colorado then when I moved to Florida I worked for a family as their nanny and loved it. When the little boy I was caring for went to school I was no longer needed as a full time nanny so I began seeking employment elsewhere. I found I job at Kindercare not knowing their bad history and worked for a week.
At Cleawater Learning Center (owned by Kindercare/KLC) I was told I'd be working with the 3's and 4's, but when I actually started they put me in the toddler room. There were 10 toddlers in my room to two teachers which legal for licensing. However, they required so much paper work to be filled out for the children that most of the time one person was working on paper work and the other person was working with the children. (If you've ever worked with toddlers, this is just to hard to handle for one person) We took the kids outside to play for 45 minutes at a time, but when we came back inside there was nothing for the kids to drink. They'd be so thirsty and I couldn't even offer them a sippy cup of water. The only time they were offered anything to drink was at meal times.
When we were outside the other teachers would take their kids out too and the whole time the teachers would just sit near the fence and yell at the kids for anything and everything. I saw many teacher yelling at the kids to the point that they began to cry. One time I saw a teacher yell at the 4 three year olds for throwing multch in the playground. She made them sit by the fence for 20 minutes and she was yelling and lecturing them the whole time. (A three year old should only be in time out a max of 3 minutes) The poor kids were crying because they were being intimidated into compliance. One little boy was actually 2 and didn't have a clue why he was sitting there.
My kids cried for their mommies the entire day because they were bored and because the other worker in the room yelled at them (yes, she yelled at one year olds). There weren't age appropriate toys in the room so all they could do is get into trouble. The toys hadn't been sterilized in months according to another employee and every child had green runny noses (signs of a sinus infection).
One day a child was sick when he awoke from his nap. He woke up crying and had such runny stool that it soiled the sheets beneath him. I changed his diaper and told the other worker that I thought he was sick. The assistant director came in and I told her that I thought this little boy was sick and she said she'd call his parents. She never did and 20 minutes later he threw up. I called to the teacher in the room next to me and asked her to tell the director that he threw up . The teacher said she told her, but no one came to check on me in my room with the sick boy for another hour. Meanwhile, he's exposing the rest of the children and crying for his mommy. While I was waiting for someone to come help me I sent the other worker out into the playground with 5 kids while I stayed in the room with 4 and the sick little boy. Finally after 2 hours the mother came in and she asked me why we didn't call her sooner. I couldn't tell her why. All I could say is that I cared for her child as best as I could. My heart was broken for that little boy and the rest of the children. When I was caring for the sick little boy I also had children that I needed to change, but couldn't because I was busy with the one who was sick. When I finally got to change their diapers one was completely red with diaper rash because I couldn't get to him for 2 hours! I felt completely helpless there and couldn't stand giving poor care to these children who deserved far more than that!
All of that happened in one week and by the end of the week I quit. I couldn't stay there any longer and contribute to their child neglect and abuse. As far a I'm concerned, KinderCare is the worst place to put your child to be cared for and with the money you spend on tuition there you could hire a nanny. I don't understand why any parent would walk into that place and leave their precious babies there.
Something needs to be done about this!
Ex-kindercareemployee
Largo, Florida
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Cclc
Clearwater,Florida,
U.S.A.
Knowledge Learning Corporation/kindercare Neglective Child Care Facility Clearwater Florida - A different look!
#3UPDATE Employee
Mon, August 04, 2008
First of all, let's say that as of 2008 the Director at the time is no longer at this facilitiy. She has been happily replaced!! YEAH!!
So let's start with each paragraph of the accusations that the ex-employee states.
She was hired for the preschool, and sent instead to the toddlers, yes, that's quite possible. The old Director unfortunately just hired people, she didn't care where they wanted to go, she just put people where she needed them. She unfortunately did that to a few of us. The new Director came right out and asked us what age we wanted and made it happen. Everyone is where they want to be or where they were hired for.
The yelling/screaming teacher? Yeah, she's LONG gone, the new Director doesn't play with anything. She makes sure when you sign the Child Abuse/Neglect paperwork from the Licensing Board you know what you're signing. Apparently you didn't get that when you were hired. She tells you straight up that she will not tolerate anything that looks like abuse or neglect and if you see something even if you're not sure of it, you'd better make that abuse hotline call, because if you don't and she finds out that you knew about it, you just lost your job too. That's how much she doesn't play with abuse and neglect. The littlest thing, yelling, tone of voice, all of it, she's very serious. Same thing with the time out thing. She walks around constantly and checks on the rooms and watches.
And lack of toys?? Yeah, the new Director found them all in the teacher's closests because those teachers didn't want to clean them up after the kids. They've been put out in the classrooms and the teachers have been told that they do NOT go back into the classrooms, up on top of cubbies, or anywhere else but on those toy shelves where they belong. And believe me....she checks! And yes, they are cleaned.
Green snot from a kid? If every day care sent home a kid with green snot there would be no day cares because the parents would no longer be employed since they'd be home all of the time. There are rules and regulations for when a child HAS to be picked up. Do we tell the parents about green snot? Of course! What they do about it is up to them, we can't treat the child who has a parent that doesn't care. We just wipe thier green snot and hope for the best when we tell the parent that the child is sick.
As for the sick child, I can guarentee that the AD called his parents. Not every parent is reachable. Thier cell-phone mail boxes are full, they don't answer thier cell phones for a million different reasons. Same thing with work phone numbers. I get this problem all the time. I tell the Director to call a parent, she does, but that parent is in a meeting, she left a message, they're not answering. It's not for lack of trying to get a hold of a parent. It's a 2 way street. And yes, those are the same parents that act all innocent and say stuff like, "why didn't you call me earlier" and then march up to the Director ready and prepared to yell just to be told that they were called, every number was called, the parent just didn't do thier part. Communication is a 2 way street with parents, they need to have numbers that we can use to get a hold of them when we DO call.
As for 2 hour diaper rash? In my 10 years old child care, I've never seen a child get diaper rash after 2 hours unless they diaper rash PRIOR. It doesn't just 'happen' by magic. It's a building process. So if after 1 change you have a child who all of the sudden has diaper rash, then there might be something else going on there.
Finally, as I stated in the beginning, if you signed the Child Abuse & Neglect paperwork you were given, you were REQUIRED to notify the Abuse hotline of anything you were concerned about. If you REALLY cared for children as you say you do, then I would have called someone, there's always a phone number posted in the bathroom, you could have even talked to another employee. Bunch of women are always good sources of information.
Unfortunately this facility had bad management. However, there's new management and the facility is absolutely wonderful. The children are happy, the parents are happy. The center is clean and inviting, the Director and her new Assistant are always available when you need them for anything. I remember the person who first reported the nastiness of this center. I was hired LONG before her, and I am happy to say that I am still employed there and the changes at the center have been the best thing for it. Everyone should at least take a tour of the center. Just walk in, they supposedly have an 'open door policy' so there's no way for them to hide anything if they don't know you're coming. Ask for a tour of the center, all of the rooms, take a walk, take a look, it's worth it just to be proven right or wrong, good or bad.
Lizzy
Tucson,Arizona,
U.S.A.
Thanks for the heads up
#3Consumer Comment
Fri, February 08, 2008
I recently took a tour of Kindercare and was impressed by what they had to say but when I came in with my registration papers filled out and the registration fee I took it upon myself to take another tour. It was then that I noticed that the facility seemed uncleanly and 8 out of 12 children in the toddler class had runny noses. I stayed for about a half an hour to observe and not one of these children were handed a kleenex or had their noses wiped. A lot of the children looked dirty and it just gave me the worst feeling. After seeing this I asked about the sick policy and was told that they are sent home after the fourth diarrhea diaper. That shocked me! I would hope that they would call me at the first sign of diarhea. And also they don't call the parents until the temp is above 101??? I must take my losses with the registration fee, I could never send me little man there!