I have a BS in Early Childhood Education. I have worked with children in various capacities over the years from a preschool teacher to Director of three childcare centers in MA. What upsets me most about day care centers is that often the children are not the centers first priority. Nor are the families. I took a job as an infant teacher here. I'm brand new to NC. I knew I could walk into this job.
EB was up for renewal of their Stars accreditation. They have 3/5. I was in a small room with up to 10 babies. We had 9. From day one there was a different teaching assistant in the room with me WHEN they had one to give me. Every week sometimes more than once they would change the room, remove cribs, add cots, remove high chairs, give infants chairs to sit in that proved to be a major safety issue. I often didn't have enough places to feed the babies or a place for me to sit while doing that. I had 8 month old babies with a range of ages up to months of age. We had a small area to diaper change where we had to climb over a shelf to do that over 50 times a day. I pushed for a proper gate but the ones they provided were easily pulled over by the children who could pull up on them. Numerous accidents would have prevailed but my reflexes are quick.
If a childcare center wants to improve their Star rating they can hire more help, have a smaller child/teacher ratio like 2/8 which they used to have, or increase the amount of space in the room. The option this center went with was to add a comfy area and a block area. Which is why 1 year olds had to sleep on cots. I never got the cots or required cot sheets.
Mostly I feel badly for the babies. The amount of paperwork and logging of different things consumed the day and left very little time to sit and read a book, play on the floor or hug a baby for more than a few minutes..
I'm going to Nanny again. I hope more families go that route, or choose family childcare instead. Centers like this offer poor care especially for the ones who pay the most!