Have Any of You Ever

[Febby]

NEAR bawling? I would have been sobbing my eyes out! I cannot keep my composure enough to not cry in a situation where I'm TERRIFIED! It just happens

I've never looked, I've heard the site exists, but I'm not even sure how to find it. But I would DEFINITELY like to see some in my area. I'm sure they're not pretty.

You can use Wisconsin's child care search engine to find them:

http://childcarefinder.wisconsin.gov/Search/BasicSearch.aspx

Once you enter a search, it'll bring up a list of daycares that meet your search criteria. Then just click on one and scroll down to "Regulation Details"

[Learning Daycare]

They definately caught my attention. I live in a major metropolitan area. It was a shock to see only two licensed and 23 voluntarily registered daycares in my city alone. There are hundreds upon hundreds of daycare ads on Craigslist every single day.

If you are anywhere near me, I know what you mean. Once upon a time, I went on Craigslist to get the going rate in the area. After seeing so many people offering childcare for anything under $100/week, I just knew these people weren't registered (in this area, you can't survive on that unless your ratio is 30:1 ). What's even more shocking is the parents who send their children to these illegal daycares! Maybe they don't know any better:confused:

[Cozy_Kids_Childcare]

If you are anywhere near me, I know what you mean. Once upon a time, I went on Craigslist to get the going rate in the area. After seeing so many people offering childcare for anything under $100/week, I just knew these people weren't registered (in this area, you can't survive on that unless your ratio is 30:1 ). What's even more shocking is the parents who send their children to these illegal daycares! Maybe they don't know any better:confused:

I'm not too far south of you. I'm in the hampton roads area of Virginia so between Williamsburg and Virginia Beach. Oh I'm sure parents know better they just care about the cost.

[delferka]

in one of my ece classes, we had to look up violations and after one, i just kept going and going. The most surprising was at a very well-known, franchised center.

During nap time, a father came in to pick up. While the lights were out, they directed him to his daughter. He realized after he got home, it wasn't his daughter! The center hadn't even noticed until he showed up with the child! :confused: I'm happy he brought her back,it could've been a true horror story.

Another one at the same center:
A teacher realized she was missing a child and after searching for her, calling the police and her parents, they found her in the bathroom.

omg!!!!!!!

[lovemykidstoo]

In one of my ECE classes, we had to look up violations and after one, I just kept going and going. The most surprising was at a VERY well-known, franchised center.

During nap time, a father came in to pick up. While the lights were out, they directed him to his daughter. He realized after he got home, it wasn't his daughter! The center hadn't even noticed until he showed up with the child! :confused: I'm happy he brought her back,it could've been a true horror story.

Another one at the same center:
A teacher realized she was missing a child and after searching for her, calling the police and her parents, they found her in the bathroom.

OK, what???? How does the dad not realize that it's not his kid while putting the child in the car? What the heck?

[CraftyMom]

Anyone heard from Vanessa Marina (MV) lately? She got a raw deal IMO. I hope she doesn't leave the childcare industry.

I agree, she did get a raw deal!

[CraftyMom]

I don't think we can look up licensing info here, but I may be wrong. I've never seen it anywhere. From what I understand anyone can call licensing and ask info on a specific provider.

[permanentvacation]

Yes. I've looked at mine and others in my area. I've done that every once in a while for years. I used to be personal friends with a few providers and have been at their houses. I know which ones of us do our jobs well and which ones of us don't. The online reports used to be quite accurate in my opinion. The ones of us that did our jobs well never had negative comments on our reports. Then we got a new supervisor. The ones of us who never had one bad comment, all of the sudden had 15 - 20 negative remarks! Every one of us!! I did notice that she reiterated herself on numerous of them. For instance, she'd say, 'dangerous substance' and ' area unsafe for children's use' for the same one problem so it would look like 2 different problems. She'd often list one problem 3 different ways. So if you had 3 things wrong, she'd list them 3 different ways so it looked like you had 9 different things wrong!

And the way they word things makes us sound like we have cocaine sitting on the daycare tables or something!

My personal kids had just come home from a trip to the ocean and put their little travel bottle of hair spray on the kitchen sink. My supervisor wrote that up as a 'dangerous substance'. I was like, that could be anything from hair spray to cocaine! I think they need to be more specific with their wording. Yes, I know hair spray can be dangerous for kids in they spray it in their eyes or ingest it. But you do see my point don't you? I think if the report said, 'hair spray on kitchen counter', parents would be less freaked out, but simply saying 'dangerous substance' makes a parent get really scared as to what that substance might have been.

And, in my defense, I have told my supervisor to take the kitchen off my license and make it not count as a daycare room (which would make it not be inspected) many, many times! She hasn't bothered taking it off yet. I finally gave up telling her to do so. My kids NEVER go into the kitchen.

I have had perfect inspections with nothing found to be wrong for 25 years. And I've had at least 5 different supervisors doing inspections throughout the years. This new one is completely absurd!

So, I know not to believe the comments she has put on everyone's inspection reports since she's replaced our old supervisor. But even though us providers know the woman is 'bulking up' the things she finds wrong, the parents don't know that about her. So when the parents check our reports, they must be scared to death to hire any of us.

Hmmm.... I have been telling you guys for a while now that many of us licensed daycare providers have been having a hard time getting kids. I wonder if that's part of the reason!

Another thing I am bothered by with the online reports is that they only show the supervisor's 'findings'. They don't show our responses to their 'findings'. Even though we can write our rebuttals on the reports. For example, I wrote that I had requested numerous times that the kitchen be excluded from my license as I do not use it for daycare, but she still hasn't removed the room from my license. I also stated that the 'dangerous substance' was a small travel sized container of hair spray. But there is no place for my statements to be put on the online reports. ...Imagine that!

[e.j.]

I don't think we can look up licensing info here, but I may be wrong. I've never seen it anywhere. From what I understand anyone can call licensing and ask info on a specific provider.

For the past several years, I've heard that violations will be available online for parents/public to check out. I've asked my licensors each time they've visited me. They all say it's coming but they're not sure when.

I think it would be interesting to see what violations others have been written up for so I can make sure I haven't missed something. It would also be nice to be able to gauge how well I'm doing compared to others in my area.

To me, though, it's kind of like having your yearly job review posted for all to see. I'm not sure I want everyone to see any little mistake I might make. There are times when I catch something like an unlocked cabinet that I usually have latched and think, "Wow! If my licensor had come in at that moment and seen that, she could have written me up for it." If it were listed online, any one looking at my record would see that and assume I'm not as safety conscious as I am. At least if the parent has to call and speak with my licensor, she knows me in a wider context and can explain to that person that this was an unusual thing for me and that I'm generally very careful about locking my cabinets, that I'm a very loving care provider, offer a lot of activities, etc...

[Annalee]

Violations are listed online here as well..most are for staff/ratio. I wonder how many violations you can get and still stay open because some providers obviously are never in compliance with staff/ratio:: BUT there are some violations listed like "no toilet paper" that is rediculous????? Maybe this was after several vists/observations???? I don't Know!!!!