Horror Story: Lost Child Incident At Daycare...Thoughts?

[Thriftylady]

That original story is sad. I work at a center and have worked at a few others. None of the centers I worked allowed children to come in and out without the adults having a attendance sheet. And we have measures in place to be sure children are not left behind. We take attendance every half hour ! When a child leaves or comes into our room we mark it on the attendance role. Every single time. I have the children buddy up when going outside or coming in. If someone doesn't have their buddy I call the office and another employee looks for the child while the children and I wait a few mins. If that child cannot be located the school goes into lockdown ( it has never happened) Sounds like that center was very disorganized and didn't want to be accountable. We are all not like that !

I don't have as many as a center. 6 max. But all my kids have a number and their place in line. If we are on an outing several times they will line up and count off. They each have to say their number. So if a number doesn't get called out, someone is missing. Luckily that has never happened but six is a much easier number to keep track of.

[Hunni Bee]

The way we do it in our center is the best method I've come across. At major transitions, we move the children from one place to another by calling roll.

For example, today we did it coming in from the playground. My co-teacher stood inside calling roll, and I was outside watching each child come out of line and into the classroom. She called a child's name and then continued to the next. I knew I had not seen the child walk out of the line, but she claimed she'd seen him. We searched the classroom to find him not in there.

Long story short, the child had already left and had been dismissed from the playground by another teacher who'd forgotten to initial him out on the roll sheet.

What I'm saying is its easy to lose track of one out of twenty, and any daycare who doesn't have procedures and fail-safes to keep that from happening is unsafe.

[Josiegirl]

I'm glad for the resurrection of this thread because it's all too easy to judge a person or situation without knowing details. The drowning death of a 3 yo that happened in my state last week brought so much judgment from the public. People were saying terrible things about the provider, asking how could this happen, and much MUCH worse. I replied to the article saying 'I try not to judge because I wouldn't want the same for myself. I wasn't there so have no clue what happened. I'm sure the pain being felt by all is horrendous and all are in my thoughts.' But while writing that down part of me was thinking How COULD this happen? And maybe that part of my mind was helping me to think of preventing terrible circumstances in my own dc situation. The dcprovider in my state sounded like a wonderful provider, trying to do all the right things, had never had a serious violation, was trying to be a free-range provider. It didn't work out and I feel badly for her as well as the family who lost their son.

The center described in the OP sounds lacking in good organization and all around skills, placing the blame on the workers when they're the responsible party. But then again, I wasn't there.

[Febby]

Accidentally leaving a child somewhere is something I'm absolutely terrified of. I do a name-to-face count each time we go in/out. I make sure children are signed in as soon as they arrive. I make sure they're signed out as soon as they're picked up. If I have to bump a child to another room, I make sure that's marked on my clipboard.

Additionally, my center will not let anyone work alone in a room for longer than a bathroom break if they are unfamiliar with the children in that room. It's too easy to make mistakes in a room where you don't know the routines or the children or the environment. It's hard enough when you do!

There was an incident at a center I was at a while ago when a teacher (A) forgot to sign a child in. Then another teacher (B) came in to send that teacher (A) elsewhere. Teacher B lined the kids up to take them outside. All the kids who were signed in were in line. The child who wasn't signed in was hiding under a table. The teacher (B) didn't see him and took the class outside without him. It's that easy to make a mistake.

As pointed out so long ago by several others, it's not uncommon to find centers that are over ratios, have inadequately trained staff working alone, and who move kids around so they can send other staff home (so they don't have to pay them anymore than they have to). I've worked in those types of centers and I have no interest in ever going back.

[NightOwl]

This thread just reminds me of how much I DON'T miss center work. I have a strong sense of empathy and my heart would break for those "almost old enough" 2 year olds who were thrown into the 3 year old room at the end of the day. They would be overwhelmed and scared, just so the center could save a few bucks.

The end of day shuffling of children and staff was an every single day event. Only now in hindsight do I realize how potentially dangerous this practice was.

I'm sure the op is long gone, but I still want to say no, this was absolutely not solely your fault. I would actually say this is about 95% the center's fault. They fired you to cover their asses and save face.

[Fml]

Similar situation

I was in a similar situation at a daycare and I unfortunately have legal action taken out against me.
I was alone the day before with 10 2yr olds and on the day of my incident I asked for help.
I got help but that person left without saying anything and it resulted in a child walking out of my class room.
My assumption is that she followed that teacher out because she was crying all day and just wanted her and well I had 9 other kids so if she wanted that teacher I'm not going to be mean I let her stay with her. As we got ready to transition from lunch to nap time a parent walked in ( now at this time the assistant was still in my room) she asked me a question about her children so I went to speak with her. Knowing the other teacher was there I turned my back. At some point during that time the assistant left and I'm assuming the child followed right behind her.
My director came and asked for the child and when I looked behind me to say she was with the assistant that was when I noticed she and the child were gone. My heart sank and it felt like eternity but this all took place in a 5 min time span.
I now have acs on me and I am not permitted to be at work.
I think of it on a teacher position and on a parent position as I am both.
And I cry just thinking about it in every way because if the possibility of anything that could've happened and if I knew the other teacher wasn't there I NEVER WOULD'VE TURNED MY BACK!!!!!!
I am sorry that happened to you and I'm glad you had no legal suit put out on you

[LadyMacbeth]

Don't feel bad! My sister worked at a summer camp with school aged children and a kid was left behind during a field trip and was reported to the police by a stranger who saw him trying to cross under a freeway at a busy intersection. My sister wasn't fired because it wasn't her fault, but the school was sued, as they rightly deserved. They were completely un organized and allowed a parent to drop off at the field trip site and did not require that all children be dropped off at school, so my sister and her assistant had the number of children wrong, not realizing the child had been dropped off. I've been in this industry so long and I tell her all the time to let it go, it was not her fault AT ALL. and this was not your fault either.

Sounds like this school is incredibly disorganized. How dare they have a lead teacher double as an administrator and constantly pull her out of her classroom? How dare they leave children with assistants who aren't familiar with them and their schedule? How dare they allow teachers to walk around with students as they please?

Im sorry this happened, but you should let it go. Its not your fault

[Unregistered]

I understand your guilt. I was involved with a similar situation, although ours was mostly the result of a miscommunication, rather than such disorganization, but I still feel terrible about it, even though the child was found almost immediately and the parent (another teach from a different room) wasn't even upset once he was found. My blame involved not being specific enough with an aide, who I told could "take him" when she left for the day, as he was my last kid. I meant take him to his mother, but she just let him come out with her and then left him in the hallway with the director--who was not aware he was being left with her, I guess. Either way, it was only the aid's 3rd day, although she had worked there summers before, and she wasn't even 18, yet, so it was 100% my responsibility and I feel bad about it to the point that I am now super paranoid about pick-up, drop-off, and class transitions for fear a child will slip out. Especially when I am in a room alone, this would put me in the position of either letting them run, or leaving my other children unattended in a classroom.

[Ariana]

I understand your guilt. I was involved with a similar situation, although ours was mostly the result of a miscommunication, rather than such disorganization, but I still feel terrible about it, even though the child was found almost immediately and the parent (another teach from a different room) wasn't even upset once he was found. My blame involved not being specific enough with an aide, who I told could "take him" when she left for the day, as he was my last kid. I meant take him to his mother, but she just let him come out with her and then left him in the hallway with the director--who was not aware he was being left with her, I guess. Either way, it was only the aid's 3rd day, although she had worked there summers before, and she wasn't even 18, yet, so it was 100% my responsibility and I feel bad about it to the point that I am now super paranoid about pick-up, drop-off, and class transitions for fear a child will slip out. Especially when I am in a room alone, this would put me in the position of either letting them run, or leaving my other children unattended in a classroom.

I remember those centre days. The never ending counting and recounting kids. Its why I hate taking my current kids to the park even though I only have 5. Too stressful.

[CeriBear]

I work in a large center and I am always counting heads especially after transitions. When all the classes are out on the playground we have a chalkboard to write down the names of the children who are being taken inside for potty/drink breaks and which teachers take them. In addition to counting heads I even do a roll call sometimes. Yes, it’s stressful and yes, it’s time consuming but I don’t want to chance losing a child even for a moment. I once had a teenage aide take one of my kids in for a drink of water and forgot to write her name on the chalkboard ( or even write that she was taking some kids in the building) and when her grandmother came I didn’t know where she was but fortunately another teacher had seen K. taking her in.