Child Removed From Daycare After Injury

[Unregistered]

about a week ago my wife complained to the daycare about our son getting bit twice in one day, after several previous incidents in his new classroom.

2 days later they claim he was "chasing after a kid that took a toy he wanted to play with" and he fell and injured his hand, it swelled up and they gave us a form to sign for the state and sent us to the emergency room to get an x-ray done. The xray showed no breaks except for a POSSIBLE hairline fracture on his little finger.


He is 2 1/2 years old and we are residents of texas state.

Im writing this because they were as nice as possible up untill the REQUIRED state investigator came in today to investigate the incident. When my wife arrived today to pick him up after the state investigator had left they had his stuff in the main office and gave us absolutely no notice other than a note that says "today is your sons last day, find him a new daycare".

So he got hurt because they cant do their jobs, and now one of us has to miss work to find him a new daycare because we were given absolutely no notice he was being removed.

Im a little bit more than irritated about this. Can they actually get away with this crap? Is there anything I can do about it?

Thanks for your time,
Daniel

[Live and Learn]

So he got hurt because they cant do their jobs, and now one of us has to miss work to find him a new daycare because we were given absolutely no notice he was being removed.

Thanks for your time,
Daniel

Why would you even want him to stay at a center where he is regularly getting hurt "because they can't do their job."?????:confused:??

If my own child had been bitten twice and then got his arm hurt like that we would have given our notice so fast their head would have been spinning.::


In my opinion you seem almost as upset by the inconvenience of having to look for a new day care as you are by your child's injuries.

Good luck finding a new daycare. You might try a home daycare this time. We tend to have a better caregiver to child ratio. Lots more hugs, kisses, laptime and snuggles....individual attention for your child. I would look for someone who has been doing daycare in their home for a few years at least.

[Unregistered]

Im looking for a specific answer to a question. Im not explaining our train of thought or writing a book here. Nor am I looking for advice on a new daycare.

If you want to help and stay on topic then please respond. If not, dont bother. I dont have time for this.

But to appease your thoughts and to put the questions of any others to rest I will explain:

Kids get bit in daycare. It happens, I understand this. Im not going to remove him if its not an ongoing constant issue. Moreover is the fact of how they treated us here at the end, I dont want other parents to go through the same thing.

After the incident with his hand we immediately started looking for a new daycare. It takes a little bit more time to find a daycare than 3 days of looking and calling around around, especially sine we CAN NOT afford to miss work, and work regular hours. I personally work from 7am to 7pm during the weekdays, and am also regularly on call during the weekend.

I am not at all upset about having to look for a new daycare. You read that post out of the context I meant for it to be read as.

I am UPSET because we are gonna be out of the money I use to feed my son and pay rent, because they gave us no notice and blind sided us. They KNEW we were taking him out, and decided to kick him out because we could make arrangements.

Again I'll ask the question the post was made for. Can we do anything to make sure this doesn't happen to any other people, legal, civil, or otherwise?

[cheerfuldom]

What does the parent handbook/contract say about termination? It is possible that you signed agreeing to the fact that they don't have to give notice and don't have give a reason, in which case, yes, they are well within the right to terminate. Are you sure your son was not instigating behavior previous to the bites? As for the running and falling, that could happen to anyone watching a child, including yourself. Stuff happens, especially with this age. No provider will be able to guarantee that your child will never be hurt by another or hurt themselves. Perhaps re-evaluate your expectations and also, carefully read termination policies before agreeing to a child care arrangement.

[Live and Learn]

Again I'll ask the question the post was made for. Can we do anything to make sure this doesn't happen to any other people, legal, civil, or otherwise?

If it where me I would familiarize myself with any daycare contract I signed.
Good luck.

[sahm1225]

What does the parent handbook/contract say about termination? It is possible that you signed agreeing to the fact that they don't have to give notice and don't have give a reason, in which case, yes, they are well within the right to terminate. Are you sure your son was not instigating behavior previous to the bites? As for the running and falling, that could happen to anyone watching a child, including yourself. Stuff happens, especially with this age. No provider will be able to guarantee that your child will never be hurt by another or hurt themselves. Perhaps re-evaluate your expectations and also, carefully read termination policies before agreeing to a child care arrangement.

well said.

.....wow, someone mustve missed their coffee this morning. If you are looking for legal advise, then consult a lawyer. We are all here to help each other, there is no reason to be rude. And yes, most centers have a clause on their contract that states they can cancel the contract with no notice, so double check your contract. If the contract says otherwise, then I would be contacting them to discuss. Another thing, I would question what the state investigators results were to the investigation - could it be that they terminated your contract to avoid the investigator digging into the matter more?

best of luck

[wdmmom]

I would review the handbook and/or contract. If they are required to provide notice, I would probably contact the state investigator or licensing agent.

If you provided a deposit, you should get it back. If you don't, options are available to recoup it.

I have a clause in my contract that parents must provide a full months notice if they choose to terminate, however, I can term at will without notice. (I've only had to do this once and it didn't come without 3 previous warnings for the same problem.)

Terminations usually never end amicably.

Also...who gave you the notice that your son couldn't come back? Was it the director?

[Hunni Bee]

Read your contract. Most centers require a two-week notice for parents to pull their children, likewise if the center decides to term the child...but centers have a few immediate-termination situations, which are, I think....gross misconduct by the child, absent a certain number of consecutive days without notice, non-payment of fees, and gross or continuous violations of the contract. All centers have the right to terminate a child for any reason, but I think they have to give notice.

I don't think this was grounds for immediate termination, in any state...especially in the manner that they handled it. I would look up the number to your local licensing agency (call city hall if you dont know what it is) and find out for sure.

[nannyde]

It sounds like they just termed you when they knew you were planning on leaving. There had to be tension and most likely words exchanged for them to KNOW you were looking elsewhere.

When clients are leaving after something happens like this they ALL look the same. They walk the same, talk the same, have the same hand gestures, the same facial expressions, the same voice inflections.

So when you showed them that you were leaving with your response they knew THAT was your signal that you were LOOKING for other arrangments.

That's all they needed. They just want to end it now so nothing else happens. They don't want any more discussions or layers of this.

You missing work isn't going to bother them a bit. It's just time to move on.

And twelve hour days PLUS weekend work???????????? That's a lot of hours away from your child every day. I hope your child is just in child care eight or nine max a day. If he's in really long hours it would explain almost everything you wrote about his experience.

[cheerfuldom]

I missed the update the OP wrote but agree that if there is any way possible, you need to be around your son more. No thats not what you want to hear. I understand times are tough but you WILL continue to have issues with daycare when your son is away from you that much and you cannot miss even a day of work to accommodate him. You need a backup plan at all times in case he just needs time with you or becomes seriously ill. Besides that, finding a new daycare is not the old daycare's problem. You're his parent, it's your responsibility and your problem. Things didn't work out at the first place and they terminated, which they had the right too, and have no responsibility to watch your child while you find another caregiver. This is a business, not a charity. Yes it involves children but still, from a business perspective, they are cutting their losses and letting you go, makes perfect sense. They did not do anything illegal or even unethical as I am sure it is all spelled it in the contract. I think the thing that is most alarming about the situation is how upset you are at being inconvenienced by your own child. You will not find much support for your point of view here because as child care providers, we unfortunately see a lot of parents like you that are working so much that they don't have the time to fully care for each issue or research the best daycare option and usually only get upset when the issue becomes a problem for them. It is very possible that this daycare could have handled things better but you can only control yourself, your responses and reactions. The court system or whoever is not going to care that you had to miss work to find new daycare so I seriously doubt you have any recourse in this situation. Its just a part of being a parent. Good luck in your new search.

[youretooloud]

The hand injury was probably nobody's fault. Those things just happen, in any setting, and will happen when he's with you.

But, giving no notice is pretty lousy!!! Even a parent who is unhappy with the daycare is expected to give a two week's notice. I'd be very angry at them for pulling a stunt like that. That seems very unfair. I don't know what you can do legally. But, I do think you should have been given a two week notice, as I assume you were planning to do with them.

I do hope you find someone quickly, even if it's just temporary.

[Unregistered]

read your contract

Im looking for a specific answer to a question. Im not explaining our train of thought or writing a book here. Nor am I looking for advice on a new daycare.

If you want to help and stay on topic then please respond. If not, dont bother. I dont have time for this.

But to appease your thoughts and to put the questions of any others to rest I will explain:

Kids get bit in daycare. It happens, I understand this. Im not going to remove him if its not an ongoing constant issue. Moreover is the fact of how they treated us here at the end, I dont want other parents to go through the same thing.

After the incident with his hand we immediately started looking for a new daycare. It takes a little bit more time to find a daycare than 3 days of looking and calling around around, especially sine we CAN NOT afford to miss work, and work regular hours. I personally work from 7am to 7pm during the weekdays, and am also regularly on call during the weekend.

I am not at all upset about having to look for a new daycare. You read that post out of the context I meant for it to be read as.

I am UPSET because we are gonna be out of the money I use to feed my son and pay rent, because they gave us no notice and blind sided us. They KNEW we were taking him out, and decided to kick him out because we could make arrangements.

Again I'll ask the question the post was made for. Can we do anything to make sure this doesn't happen to any other people, legal, civil, or otherwise?

I won't apologize for the group being so rude to you. I'm a parent who uses this site as reference and have noticed that virtually are of them are like this in virtually every situation. I agree that the group should stay focused on what you asked, not disect your email about your working hours or otherwise because that's not what you were asking. I recommend that you read your contract. What this forum doesn't seem to get time after time is that while it's easy to say you should pull your child, etc, but in the long run, as customers, we work part or full time and have to be at work or we risk losing our jobs or losing our annual raise because of this kind of stupid stuff that this daycare pulled on you.

If I were you, I would read your contract and if they were supposed to give you 2 weeks, then I would file a complaint with licensing. If there is a generic clause about giving less than 2 weeks notice, they have to legally justify that if someone challenges it and I would challenge that via licensing. Good luck and just be glad that your child is out of there. You'll see that things will be much better somewhere else. And before signing up your child in a home daycare, I would highly recommend you read some threads on the daycare provider part of the forum before deciding and get some recommendations from your friends. Ultimately, go with your gut during your tour and turn down any place that won't give you a tour during core learning time - it's vital so you can see how they interact with the children and what they do during the day. Some teachers are real flat and downright not fit to be around kids. Good luck!

[ghdpink]

What this forum doesn't seem to get time after time is that while it's easy to say you should pull your child, etc, but in the long run, as customers, we work part or full time and have to be at work or we risk losing our jobs or losing????????????????????????????

[Meeko]

When I read your original post, I felt sorry for you and the situation seemed unfair.

However......when you sarcastically snapped back at the poster who offered some fair advise, I couldn't help wondering if you spoke to the day care staff with that same tone. If you spoke to THEM like that, then I am not surprised they terminated care.

My guess is that they didn't term because an inspector showed up....they termed because you spoke to them like they were stupid. Your last posts show how short tempered and rude you can be to someone who was only trying to offer some advise.

[Meeko]

I won't apologize for the group being so rude to you. I'm a parent who uses this site as reference and have noticed that virtually are of them are like this in virtually every situation. I agree that the group should stay focused on what you asked, not disect your email about your working hours or otherwise because that's not what you were asking. I recommend that you read your contract. What this forum doesn't seem to get time after time is that while it's easy to say you should pull your child, etc, but in the long run, as customers, we work part or full time and have to be at work or we risk losing our jobs or losing our annual raise because of this kind of stupid stuff that this daycare pulled on you.

If I were you, I would read your contract and if they were supposed to give you 2 weeks, then I would file a complaint with licensing. If there is a generic clause about giving less than 2 weeks notice, they have to legally justify that if someone challenges it and I would challenge that via licensing. Good luck and just be glad that your child is out of there. You'll see that things will be much better somewhere else. And before signing up your child in a home daycare, I would highly recommend you read some threads on the daycare provider part of the forum before deciding and get some recommendations from your friends. Ultimately, go with your gut during your tour and turn down any place that won't give you a tour during core learning time - it's vital so you can see how they interact with the children and what they do during the day. Some teachers are real flat and downright not fit to be around kids. Good luck!

So you are suggesting he take his child to a place where strangers are allowed to hang around? I am a day care provider. Have been for 25 years. For the safety of the children I NEVER allow strangers into my home and allow them near the children. As a parent of four children, I would never WANT my children to go to a place where their security was so bad.

I used to allow it. One day we found out that the father of one of our little day care girls was a convicted child rapist who had done time in another state. He liked to come and "observe" (yeah right) as you recommend. He seemed like a nice guy at first...business suit, friendly etc. Nobody will ever "observe" again. The parents of the children I have in my care are very grateful that I don't allow complete strangers to come in and be near their children. They are free to come and spend time with THEIR child any time they like. But they are never allowed around other people's kids. There is no need for them to be.

I wish people would stop pushing the "go and watch" thing. If your supervisor at work spent the day staring at you, would you put a foot wrong? Of course not. You probably wouldn't even pop a piece a gum in your mouth as you worked for fear of being accused of slacking off. Doesn't mean you won't spend the work day on facebook when the supervisor is away.

Spending a day with a day care provider is no different. What if she is a horrible person and abuses the kids.....do you think she'd do it in front of you?! Of course not! She will be on her best behavior! Mary Poppins in person!

Parents should check with licensing, ask for references of present and past clients and then watch their kids. Do they come home happy? Do they have friends? Do they talk about day care as if they enjoy it? These are REAL indicators of what the facility is like.

I know I am waaaay off topic here....but I am tired of the scaremongering that gets done to parents. Not all day care providers are satan personified.