DS is almost 11 months old and has been in daycare since April. We are generally happy with it and he seems to like it there, but one thing is really annoying me and DH. The teachers in the classroom seem to be a revolving door. When he started, we were told the infant room has 3 teachers, and others float in and out during breaks. Within weeks, they started switching around the teachers and our favorite one moved to a different room. We became close with the replacement teacher, then a month or two later, she also moved. It's sort of unclear now who the actual 3 teachers in the class are because there are always random teachers in the room. When we do drop off and pickup, there are always two teachers in there but often they seem to be new or floaters and we are constantly introducing ourselves to new teachers. We don't even really know who the 3 designated teachers in the room actually are at this point. It just seems very random and as a result, I feel like the care for DS has declined. There is one lady in the room who has been there since he started, but she isn't even in there half the time we drop off or pickup. Would this annoy you? Is it typical for daycare to constantly move around the placement of teachers?
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That would annoy me because one of the things infants need most is a secure attachment with a consistent care provider!
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I would check with the director. The people at our dropoff and pickup change around a lot, but it's just the early and late schedule - they have the same 3 teachers for the bulk of the day, it's just more random who has the early and late shift.
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Definitely talk to the director.
Ultimately we left our first center because of reasons along these lines. Our new center is very standard.
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This was a problem at our last daycare. The first year DS1 was there the teachers in the infant room stayed the same and there were floaters too but in the last 1.5 years there was so much turnover - all but one of the teachers left the daycare in that time so we switched to a center we think is more stable.
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Too much turnover definitely bothers me, especially with the little ones. I want someone who knows my kid and vice versa. Our daycare has gone through unstable phases, but as soon as I'm starting to get really worried about it, things seem to calm down. I'd definitely talk with the director and ask what's going on. Having to clarify who the main teachers are is not good...turnover happens but they should communicate clearly about it, IMO.
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Turnover is really common in daycare. I had some huge frustrations with our first center because teachers kept changing and DS was having huge anxiety at being left with different people every day.
We're now at a smaller center which has almost no turnover. The only teacher I know of left because she wanted to change from pre-knot toddlers and there was no availability for that. The floaters change a bit, but the main teachers in both my kids classes have stayed the same all the way through.
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Something to also keep in mind is that a lot of your daycare experience has been from over the summer, I know for our daycare in the fall-spring things are MUCH more stable/predictable with a lot more flux/floating in the summer due to vacations of staff, adjusting ratios, kids moving up in classes and numbers shifting etc. I would try to wait a bit until fall hits before getting *too* concerned.
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I see a lot of different teachers throughout the week in my son's class, but the main 2 teachers were always consistent. They do have a lot of floaters that cover early or late, but I have been happy to see that they all know my son by name. At first it bothered me that the person at pick up didn't seem to know anything about his day, but as I got familiar with who's who I knew when was a good time to ask. I would chat with the director so you can understand what to expect.
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@MsMini: I agree that summer seems to be more random at our daycare too.
This time of year the teachers are going on holidays and lots of the kids. There have been fewer kids at our daycare this summer. Because of these things there are different teachers at drop off/pick up. DS is four and from what he's been talking about lately they've been combining his room and the kindergarten room lots.
I'd talk to the director and see what's going on.
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That would make me feel uncertain as well. Not sure how do children react to it though. I mean on the one hand, the child is exposing himself to many new faces, which allows for social readiness and on the other the change may prevent them from deveoping longer relationships. But these are just hypothetical conclusions on whatever I know. I guess it is both good and bad but it wouldn't hurt to ask for aclarification from them for why it functions this way.
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