anyone feels like daycare teacher quality has gone down since panademic started?

[Anonymous]

I feel it because many of our current daycare's teachers were laid off or changing jobs. Now, many teachers are less inexperienced or new, and they don't seem to be that more passionate or more involved compared to some teachers that my oldest child used to have . Right now, my youngest one has been in this daycare for 1 plus year. I think the director hires some less inexpensive or less qualified assistants or helpers, and the main teacher is still okay for now. It is probably difficult to hire now.

[Anonymous]

We've lost a lot of good ones at our daycare. It is not the highest-priced in the area so I think it is largely a pay issue; I also get the sense that the director and lead admins are micromanagers and tough to work for. I am very sympathetic with daycare teachers but the current ones in my DD's classroom do not have the skills, personal connection or the experience that her previous ones did.

[Anonymous]

It’s hard work with extremely high burnout rates and low pay.

[Anonymous]

Ours still has wonderful staff but quite a few of the most experienced, longest tenured ones departed during Covid. That leaves a gap that’s hard to fill, even with really good newer teachers.

[Anonymous]

Yes. It is a low paying industry and everyone is looking to hire. A lot of the most qualified daycare teachers have gone to the public schools.

[Anonymous]

How much does daycare teacher get paid if I pay like $21k a month for 3 year old (2 teachers to 24 kids ratio) in MoCo?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much does daycare teacher get paid if I pay like $21k a month for 3 year old (2 teachers to 24 kids ratio) in MoCo?

There is no way you pay $21,000/month for daycare.

But it doesn't matter what they charge; the average daycare employee's salary is about $20,000-$30,000/year.

[Anonymous]

^think they either meant $21k a year or $2100 a month.

[Anonymous]

Daughter goes to a home daycare that is family run- luckily because of this her teachers have been the same. Consider a good home daycare.

[Anonymous]

Like everywhere, it's extremely hard to hire. My kids are in ES but I was recently talking to the director at our old daycare, which we loved and had very little turnover pre-Covid. They are still well below capacity post-Covid because they can't find staff. They have been able to get some grants to increase salaries but are still having trouble retaining new staff. Meanwhile, other expenses keep going up, yet they can't jack up rates by 50%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. It is a low paying industry and everyone is looking to hire. A lot of the most qualified daycare teachers have gone to the public schools.

This should be changing soon at least in DC with the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund. Child care teachers with bachelor's degrees will be paid as much as DCPS teachers with bachelor's degrees starting next October.

[Anonymous]

People make about the same working at Chick-fil-A than they will at a daycare. The level of responsibility and stress is probably much lower working retail.

Plus, in places like DC and Maryland want to make daycare providers have college degrees in ECE and that’s putting off a lot of people.

[Anonymous]

Many of the lead teachers at my kids daycare decamped to work for MCPS. I don’t blame them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Daughter goes to a home daycare that is family run- luckily because of this her teachers have been the same. Consider a good home daycare.

Agree

[Anonymous]

All the sweet older ladies left the industry due to COVID.

That was the biggest change we noticed pre-COVID vs post-COVID: the older women (55+) are not there anymore.