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If your child is thriving and happy, I wouldn't panic. That said, I would still explore other options.

We started at a daycare center that sounds similar, and thought we were happy with it. They are a national provider, with sites that get rave review around the country, but this location was awful. In the 18 months we were there, DS was in 2 classrooms and had no fewer than 11 different teachers....it has been a while, so I don't remember the exact count. Turnover was insane - one teacher gave notice at 10am on a Tuesday, and just walked out of the building

We left for a different issue, but this was definitely related, and our new daycare center is a million times better. I had no idea what I was missing!

Our current daycare covers the same exact ages and is similarly priced. It has minimal staff changes, and it only happens between school years because people are moving to teach in the school district or are leaving the field of early childhood education -- it is unheard of for a teacher to leave mid-year. The administration is also infinitely more professional, which I think is a big factor in teacher retention.

I thought I was happy at our first place - but my eyes have been opened by our new daycare. Lack of professionalism and high turnover may be common, but they are NOT inevitable. It is worth looking around...you may be as pleasantly surprised as I was.

That to me is abnormal, just because DD1 has been there since 10 months and she's heading to pre-k now and DD2 started when she was 6 months and is now 1.5. And DD2 has had all the same teachers and even assistants in the baby room and now toddler room.

With that said, as long as your son is happy there, and the standards and practices have not changed even with the turnover and they make it as seamless as possible, I wouldn't worry too much. But I guess I'd always wonder why...

@MACSUNSHINE: DDs first daycare went thrigh a phase of whay felt like high turnover and I considered pulling her out. In the end it all balanced out and we kept her there til we moved out of that area. I think you have to follow your gut instinct. How the upper management behaves really sets the tone for the whole place. I would address your concerns with them and see what happens

Our daycare has pretty high turnover as well, so it doesn't seem abnormal. Turnover does seem highest for the younger rooms (infants and toddlers) and most of the twos, preschool and pre-k teachers have all been there the entirety of our time.

DS is two so he's in his third room (infant, toddler and two-year-olds) and we've experienced a lot of turnover:

Infant room: Main teacher left less than a month after he started; replacement was there the rest of his time in the room but left a month later; the second teacher is still there.

Toddler room: Main teacher left a month before he moved up to the 2s (so was with her 11 months); had three second teachers in 12 months

Both his current teachers have been there since we started at the daycare, so there is some stability there. Our place does utilize recent college grads (we live in a college town) a bit for the second teacher roll in the younger rooms, so that definitely plays a part in the turnover.

Daycare teachers can make as little as $8 per hour and I would think the average starting salary is around $10. I would think any certified teachers are always keeping their options open and although they may love the kids and what they do that isn't a long term sustainable salary. I do see the trend that there is less movement from preschool and up. Our school, which I love, has an interesting model that they have their classroom teacher who handles diapering/toileting, boo boos, helping student interactions, discipline, and the special who does the lesson. As a teacher myself, I think its amazing for someone to handle all of the 'distributions" while instruction continues. My daughter has 8-9 teachers daily (two at a time). In her two years in the toddler program, I would say 5 teachers remain consistent. There has been some movement within the the school and some new teachers. They try to hire certified teachers so in general I've really liked the "greenness" of the new staff members - cheerful, positive, ready to change the world. Some changes we've been notified about and some have been mysterious. One teacher notified the parents that her last day would be friday and then we never saw her again. I thought maybe she wasn't supposed to do that and administration had to answer a lot of questions about replacement. I would think anyone good wouldn't last longer than a year or two unless they have great financial support from a spouse of family.

LO has moved classes 7 times since starting daycare at 3.5 months old and he’s now 2. I know there are new faces in his old classes when I peak in, but there’s also quite a bit of consistency. The directors always share it’s hard to retain good teachers. I recall one new teacher LO had clearly did not like the age group and she didn’t stay long at the daycare maybe a month. Some teachers move away or start families and leave because of that. I wish they would communicate better if there’s going to be a change especially when it’s a good story like so and so is now a teacher in this classroom. Our daycare really floats teachers around to help support each other, which is great since they move classes so much for the kids and teachers. It’s nice that new teachers are already familiar with LO.