Toddler left at Livingston Park by daycare (FCC?)

[Anonymous]

We got the notice today - we do not know which school building the the child was from, as you might guess the note was lacking in specifics.

To the other poster : you're right it probably shouldn't matter that it was not my child but from a taking legal action perspective I would think that it would. That was my point.

[Anonymous]

Why is this not on the news? If I was the parent, I would be suing the shit out of this place and getting the whole facility shut the fuck down. If I was another parent, I would pull my kid out so fast their heads would spin. I would take sick leave, vacation, call relatives, whatever I had to do to find alternative child care.

My DD just started preschool and I would be neurotically and irrationally hugging her curled up in a fetal position and not letting go if something like this happened to her. And I'd be calling every lawyer, licensing board, etc. I could find.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is this not on the news? If I was the parent, I would be suing the shit out of this place and getting the whole facility shut the fuck down. If I was another parent, I would pull my kid out so fast their heads would spin. I would take sick leave, vacation, call relatives, whatever I had to do to find alternative child care.

My DD just started preschool and I would be neurotically and irrationally hugging her curled up in a fetal position and not letting go if something like this happened to her. And I'd be calling every lawyer, licensing board, etc. I could find.

You understand how challenging it is to get into a daycare in DC correct? Closing this daycare is not the answer. Should we take every child ever injured in the care of a parent and placed them in CPS?

It will be telling to see what is FCC response. Do they implement new prodecures? Have an outside evaluator come in and look at policies to understand risks. They should call the JCC as they have a recent situation with the exact same situation and see what the JCC did to ensure it would not happen again.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, but this wasn't an accidental injury. They forgot a child. Daycares serve one single function - to watch your child. They failed this fundamental task. They didn't accidentally feed a cracker to a gluten sensitive kid, or give a baby the wrong breast milk or even leave a rusty nail out that impaled a kid. THEY FORGOT A CHILD. For over an hour! And then, it appears, were not forthcoming about the incident.

You think supply and demand means daycare centers can slide on WATCHING CHILDREN? I sympathize with the difficulty in finding daycare providers, but come on. There is no excuse here. This cannot get swept under the rug because they are in demand.

[Anonymous]

NP here. I live on 41st St NW, and work from home, so I see the employees and the stroller carts of kids all. the time. on the sidewalk. Ambling down the sidewalk to get aired out.

[Anonymous]

I don't care how hard it is to find care in DC. They failed at the most fundamental task. They lost a child for a better part of an hour. I hope criminal charges are brought up against the teachers and they shit this place down. AND I hope the parents of this poor child sue the hell out of them.

[Anonymous]

If you read the JCC thread, it's not always as easy a decision as "pull my kid out.". First, you will probably find it very difficult to trust ANY day care center or nanny. At least your current center is a known quantity. Second, the truth is that this could happen at most day cares--and it probably wouldn't happen again at this one.

I speak a bit from experience. We had a major --major-- diaper rash incident where DD's butt was literally bleeding. I was in a rage-- leaving crazy voicemails, emails, etc etc. but at the end of the day, I felt I really couldn't trust anyone and at least i had this director (and teachers') attention. Yes I realize that this is not the same as leaving your kid at a park. But when confronted with actually leaving your kid with a new nanny or center? I couldn't do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, but this wasn't an accidental injury. They forgot a child. Daycares serve one single function - to watch your child. They failed this fundamental task. They didn't accidentally feed a cracker to a gluten sensitive kid, or give a baby the wrong breast milk or even leave a rusty nail out that impaled a kid. THEY FORGOT A CHILD. For over an hour! And then, it appears, were not forthcoming about the incident.

You think supply and demand means daycare centers can slide on WATCHING CHILDREN? I sympathize with the difficulty in finding daycare providers, but come on. There is no excuse here. This cannot get swept under the rug because they are in demand.

I am not arguing that this should get swept under the rug - just that shutting a facility down is not the answer. What do you think parents will do if this facility is shut down? Put their children in unliscensed home daycares - b/c there are no other openings. Lose their job b/c they can not find childcare? Which is worse?

The appropraiate response is to figure out what went wrong. Was these a hand-off that did not happen? Was there a procedure that was not followed?
What procedures need to be revisited? Is it a training issue? and fix it.

I believe DC Law says that the school needs to call DC Police is a child is missing for more than 5 minutes. The appropraite liscensing professionals will be involved. They do not thake these things lightly.

[Anonymous]

Every teacher in the room should be fired immediately. I have NO idea how this could happen - I have a similarly-aged son in daycare and agree with PP that it's not that easy to shut the place down, etc. But if my kid was in that room and every teacher involved in that park trip wasn't immediately fired, I'd pull him.

[Anonymous]

this is just terrifying. i would be going ballistic if that was my kid. those poor parents!!!

[Anonymous]

There are a lot of good people there shutting it down is not the answer. Holding those responsible is , maybe changing procedures and being more careful.

[Anonymous]

While forgetting him is frightening I think it is even more concerning that they didn't realize he was missing when they got back to the daycare. Dad came for pick up and no kid and that is when they realized he wasn't there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are a lot of good people there shutting it down is not the answer. Holding those responsible is , maybe changing procedures and being more careful.

The truth is, it's really not a mystery how or why these incidents happen. The teachers were careless. They either didn't count the number of kids before the left the building or didn't count before the left the park. And, they aren't keeping track of all the kids while at the park either. There are too many kids for each teacher to watch but the economics of child care centers dictate ridiculous ratios (I don't care if that's all the city requires... it's crazy).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While forgetting him is frightening I think it is even more concerning that they didn't realize he was missing when they got back to the daycare. Dad came for pick up and no kid and that is when they realized he wasn't there.

FYI - I typed that earlier as a hypothetical. But it may be true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While forgetting him is frightening I think it is even more concerning that they didn't realize he was missing when they got back to the daycare. Dad came for pick up and no kid and that is when they realized he wasn't there.

FYI - I typed that earlier as a hypothetical. But it may be true.

[/quote

Pick up or not, he was there for an hour! Given the timing nad the mention of dad being at the park, it seems likey it was pick up.