Those of you Who have Employees or Work in Centers...

[Febby]

Do you ever sneak a child out of a group that your employee is supposed to be supervising to see how long it takes them to notice that a child is missing? If so, how long do you allow them to notice?

Licensing has been recommending it to centers here. Mine hasn't tried it yet, but I suspect they will. Actually I suspect they'll pull it on me since I had a child run out of my room earlier in the week. Not really my fault, the child has some developmental issues and is tall enough to reach the door locks, so he escaped while I was breaking up a fight in another area of the room. I knew he got out; I was just too far away to physically stop him. Of course, that child doesn't get to be anywhere near the door without a staff member now...

But, anyway, does anyone do this? Or do you know of anyone in your area who does do this?

[Unregistered]

No, I have never heard of anyone trying to test staff like that. They did stuff like that all the time when I worked in retail tho ! Like leave a wallet at your register to see what you do etc. I think the difference is, no director wants to violate the trust of their staff like that. If there was some sort of regional boss coming to the center and doing it, I guess that could be similar to the retail thing, but idk any big childcare chain like that.

[NoMoreJuice!]

I have employees and I would never EVER do that to them. How horrible.

That being said, I think part of being prepared for disasters such as fire, tornado, medical injury, etc. should include lost children. There should be a set plan in place, such as who to contact in the chain of command, locking down all rooms until the child is found, whatever the procedure might be. And I guess it's reasonable to assume some management would feel staff would be more prepared if they were to do drills just like tornado and fire.

I thought I had lost a child once (she was actually playing hide and seek at level 100 without telling me we were playing) and I had my employee stay with all the children in one room while I ransacked every single room and closet. It took about three minutes for me to decide she wasn't in the house, and my husband determined she wasn't outside, so I called 911. When child popped out of the most impossible hiding place, I was on the phone with dispatch and gave the all clear, but it was a very important lesson for my employee and I: we needed a solid plan for a lost child.

Still, I would NEVER practice an unannounced drill on an employee. My heart is beating faster just typing that story, and it happened over a year ago.

[racemom]

My center has never done this, and I hope they never do! I, honestly, would become so panicked! Even out in our fenced in playground if I cannot see everyone in my group all the time I can feel the panic starting!

[Unregistered]

When I was a director at a center we did this. The staff knew that we conduct missing/lost child drills at random. It was to ensure that staff were aware of their counts at all times. At my former center each staff member had a walkie talkie every day that was on during their entire work time. No names or personal info were ever mentioned over the walkie talkies. The drill was to see how quickly the staff member would notice the missing child. In addition, I would randomly walk around at different times of the day asking teachers their counts at that moment without counting their children. After a few drills and random walk arounds, my staff were pros at knowing where their kids were and how many they had at all times. It was important we did this because we had a lot of outside extra curricula activities that different children attended throughout the week.

[stephanie]

The two centers I've worked at never did this and I haven't heard of it. They did stress the importance of knowing the # of kids at all times, and in my last center managers would pop in frequently throughout the day to see what our numbers were (mostly so they could move staff around since they were so understaffed...glad I'm done with that place!)

[Play Care]

When I was a director at a center we did this. The staff knew that we conduct missing/lost child drills at random. It was to ensure that staff were aware of their counts at all times. At my former center each staff member had a walkie talkie every day that was on during their entire work time. No names or personal info were ever mentioned over the walkie talkies. The drill was to see how quickly the staff member would notice the missing child. In addition, I would randomly walk around at different times of the day asking teachers their counts at that moment without counting their children. After a few drills and random walk arounds, my staff were pros at knowing where their kids were and how many they had at all times. It was important we did this because we had a lot of outside extra curricula activities that different children attended throughout the week.

I can totally see the need to conduct drills.
But I'm terribly uncomfortable with the idea of sneaking a child away from the group.
Yes, staff need to know where the kids are and be on top of that. But the KIDS also need to know that they need to stay with their staff and ask them if they need to change their location (ie: use the bathroom, get a drink, go with a therapist, etc) I feel that this is setting up the staff to fail because it gives the kids the idea that if another center adult comes and takes them, they don't need to check in with their primary teacher before going off. And older kids will most certainly catch on that this "drill" was meant to "test" their teacher. I think it can alter the power dynamic and potentially make the teacher's job more difficult. Sort of like how some state's tie teacher evaluations to test score and if kids don't like a teacher they are purposely bombing the tests...
I can see it now "Hey, let's hide on Miss Teacher and get her in trouble! She wouldn't let me have juice with snack!"

[DaveA]

No. I can't believe licensing is suggesting that. That could cause way too many problems with staff and with the children like PPs have said. Actually, the more I think about it I CAN believe licensing suggested it. Many of them know rules and paperwork but don't know jack about childcare.

In the centers I've worked at that did lost children drills we used the school age child of a staff member (someone staff would recognize) or a child sized stuffed animal.

[NoMoreJuice!]

In the centers I've worked at that did lost children drills we used the school age child of a staff member (someone staff would recognize) or a child sized stuffed animal.

I love this idea! Using a stuffed animal would give the staff a good chance to search, without giving the kiddos any bad ideas and without giving the staff a huge real heart attack.

[racemom]

I can totally see the need to conduct drills.
But I'm terribly uncomfortable with the idea of sneaking a child away from the group.
Yes, staff need to know where the kids are and be on top of that. But the KIDS also need to know that they need to stay with their staff and ask them if they need to change their location (ie: use the bathroom, get a drink, go with a therapist, etc) I feel that this is setting up the staff to fail because it gives the kids the idea that if another center adult comes and takes them, they don't need to check in with their primary teacher before going off. And older kids will most certainly catch on that this "drill" was meant to "test" their teacher. I think it can alter the power dynamic and potentially make the teacher's job more difficult. Sort of like how some state's tie teacher evaluations to test score and if kids don't like a teacher they are purposely bombing the tests...
I can see it now "Hey, let's hide on Miss Teacher and get her in trouble! She wouldn't let me have juice with snack!"

I never even thought about the kids picking up on this, and can totally see some kids sneaking out. That is what would happen, we have some adventurous kids who would sneak out and then blame it on the drills. Why encourage children to get lost, or leave without permission? We teach the kids to stay with us at all times, why encourage them to disobey!! Crazy!

[MsLisa]

We don't do it in the SA room. Don't know about pre-k and unders.

Not that it would matter if they did, I'm so hyper vigilant and observant, even when it looks like i'm not, that I know where all the kids are at all times. I even do it when I'm not at work. I count kids almost like an OCD.

(Plus my SA kids are so trained to ask before doing anything that I never really have to worry. Hiding from me or a parent is an automatic write up and none of them want it.)

[Unregistered]

I can totally see the need to conduct drills.
But I'm terribly uncomfortable with the idea of sneaking a child away from the group.
Yes, staff need to know where the kids are and be on top of that. But the KIDS also need to know that they need to stay with their staff and ask them if they need to change their location (ie: use the bathroom, get a drink, go with a therapist, etc) I feel that this is setting up the staff to fail because it gives the kids the idea that if another center adult comes and takes them, they don't need to check in with their primary teacher before going off. And older kids will most certainly catch on that this "drill" was meant to "test" their teacher. I think it can alter the power dynamic and potentially make the teacher's job more difficult. Sort of like how some state's tie teacher evaluations to test score and if kids don't like a teacher they are purposely bombing the tests...
I can see it now "Hey, let's hide on Miss Teacher and get her in trouble! She wouldn't let me have juice with snack!"

I understand what you are saying. We did the missing child drills 3 times a year, only one was unannounced. It was also to run through our missing child SOP. After each drill we always had a staff meeting to share thoughts/concerns, and none of the teachers felt they were being tested. It is because we actually had a "missing child" at one of our other centers, where the child was hiding behind the bushes in the yard and wasn't in line when the class was ready to go back inside. The teacher thought the child lined up in the wrong line. Trust me it has happened before where a child is not paying attention and goes in the wrong line until the teachers count and realize they have an extra child. And these were 3 & 4 year olds. No one thought to check the bushes until after checking the entire inside of the school. Then they checked the yard again and found the child in the bushes. That's the whole reason our centers decided to start having these drills.

The children never caught on because it was done during a normal activity/transition such as going to the bathroom around other children. For example during outdoor play with 4 classes (about 76 children). We had a huge yard with stairs leading up to a covered patio play area where the bathrooms and the two doors leading into the building are located. Staff are stationed all around the yard including the patio. Yes, the children are told to always ask their teacher if they need to use the bathroom, however children are children and will consider all the staff their teacher because they come in contact with each of them on a daily basis, and their parents calls them all teachers. If another teacher is closer, they will ask that teacher to go to the bathroom since they will usually ask at the last minute. The teachers need to communicate this with each other which is the goal. I know teachers work hard, are tired at the end of the day/ week, and some become lax/less vigilant over time since "nothing" bad happened for a while. However, when caring for children especially other people's children we must be vigilant at all times.

[daycare]

I have never done it, but my friend works at a center nearby that does it. 2 years ago she gotten written up, because she didn't pass.