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I have worked for KinderCare since Aug.08, and I have worked within the Knowledge Universe corporation since Jan. 08. Since working there, I have noticed a variety of violations

-According to Colorado state Law, every employee is entitled to a compensated 10 minute break for every 4 hours of employment. We never recieved these 10 minute breaks. In fact, we often are not given the time to go to the bathroom, but this has improved recently

-According to Colorado State Law, every employee is allowed (if the workplace permits) a 30 minute uninteruppted lunch time in which they can pursue their own personal interestes. KinderCare employees were often either asked or forced to do tasks on their breaks for their job since they were not given this time during their work time. All that would ahve been required of management would have been to stand in a classroom while the teacher spent 5-10 minutes finishing up details, but this did not happen.

-If a child or employee displays certain signs of illness (most notably a confirmed case of strep and/or vomiting and/or a high fever) they are to go home. This is NOT the case at center #301512. There have been many occasions when workers have been sick to the point of vomiting, but have not been sent home. In fact, about 2 weeks ago, I myself told the center director that I had gotten sick in the bathroom. She not only did not send me home, but sent an employee to work in another center in ANOTHER district. After being at work all day, the following week, at least 10 seperate kids got the stomach flu and 5 different employees as well. They have allowed kids who were confirmed with strep come in less than 24 hours after starting their medication as well

-All Code 1's must be called in. This includes; leaving a child unsupervised, falling asleep in a classroom, using your cellphone while supervising children, feeding a child with a known allergy that allergn, insubordination (defined as not following a directive by your supervisor or using hard/abusive language towards your supervisor unprovoked and in front of coworkers/customers) and (if I'm too believe my CD) having coffee in the classroom with children. This does NOT happen AT ALL.

I myself have witnessed the center director leave children unsupervised in our foyer area when she gets up to walk with the other kids. I have also witnessed different teachers not notice when kids run into adjoining rooms, and are unaware they have even left.

Coffee in classrooms is a recently occurence, and have even seen a staff member leave it within the reach of a child so that the child spilled this coffee all over themselves-resulting in blistered skin. The CD DID NOTHING.

This same staff member also (repeatedly) fed a staff members child eggs, when this child had a strong intolerance to eggs. Again, nothing.

Twice they have caught people sleeping on the job, and instead of reporting it, both times they treated it like a joke.

The AD and CD have both caught people multiple times on the phone-me being one of them. From my knowledge, no one but I has recieved a warning for this. And due to the write up, I never bring my phone into the building. This was the correct response! However, they have yet to write anyone else up for this.

There are multiple examples of insubordination. The most basic would be the blatant disrespect shown for our CD by the majority of our staff. They insult her behind her back, and often do not do what she asked them to do. One employee has blantantly told her that her request was 'bulls##t". However, nothing was done. Multiple employees have yelled at her or confronted her, and nothing happened. This is not a good work environment! If your employees disrespect you this much, than there is obviously an issue with your management style.

-Our CD and AD have used abusive and/or harrassing language towards the staff. Examples of this are

-I was once yelled at, in front of parents, by our CD because she called in a CODE 1 without investigating the entire manner. A teacher had told me that a child said he was left outside; when I informed my coworker of this, she told my CD. Even though the CD never saw all three of us together, did not talk to the child, nor actually got the whole story, she called HR. Later it was found to be somethign else, and our director was reprimanded by her DM. The CD then found me (teaching an enrichment program) and yelled at me in front of parents

-The AD called me *** or retarded on multiple ocassions

-I am very sensitive, so often the CD would berate me and then finish up with a deragatory statement about me crying (i.e. "Your just going to cry anyways, so get it done with" "QUIT CRYING!" "Get out of here if your just going to cry"). Often times the confrontation would either be provoked by the CD, or she would react angrily in any attempt I made to sit down and discuss an issue professionally with her.

-Both the CD and AD talked about their staff in a deregatory and mean spirited way. The CD has also demeaned staff during tours with parents

-There was false information written on official write ups that were never corrected. Examples of this include; omissions of actual events that transpired, accounts of previous conferences that never actually occured, and a false retelling of the events in order to hide accountability on the CD's part.

-All possible instances of child abuse MUST BE REPORTED TO STATE. This is THE LAW if you are a mandated reporter. However, in the two instances I felt it necessary to say something, I followed protocol by telling the CD. These are the two instances that occured

-A child had a bruise on his face. When I asked him how it occured,he said his father struck him. THIS IS EVIDENCE OF CHILD ABUSE. I told my CD, who said that 'children make things up all the time'. This is before I had any formal training on abuse reporting; had I known then that I had every right to call in, I would have.

-Another child displayed strong signs of sexual abuse. She was afraid to go home with a certain individual, had bruises on her, had cuts and abraisions in her private areas, was wetting herself, and had violent nightmares. I mentioned this to my CD, who did nothing. I then mentioned it to one of the parents of the child (the nightmares anyway) and the parents launched an investigation-I was scolded and told to come to my CD first before talking to parents. IN BOTH CASES I WAS WITHIN MY RIGHT AS A REPORTER TO REPORT THESE INCIDENTS.

-There was a blatant disregard for not only ratios, but for the best interest of the child. We would be left out of ratio often, and told to just 'stick through it'. We also bumped kids from room to room, without regard for their developmental level (we had kids who were barely 24 months in rooms with kids who were 42 months and up). We also continually changed the setting of the rooms in regards to who was in the rooms and how many kids we would hold, which resulted in disorientation and a feeling of chaos for the kids.

-We were not given the time to properly clean and sanitize our rooms. There are certain guidelines we need to adhere too but we were simply not given the time to do so. If we were lucky, we would get 30 minutes to properly close out and sanitize our room. However, the norm was 10-15 minutes. This is not enough time to properly clean out the bathrooms and sanitize the toys, nor to bleach out all surfaces that are touched by children.

-WE NEVER RECIEVED HEALTH AND SAFETY CHECKS. I am not even sure if this center currently has a health and safety liasion. I witnessed numerous violations of health and safety that were regularly occuring. This includes

-Not washing the childs hands before food or after diaper changes

-Not wearing gloves while feeding a child breast milk

-Cabinets not being locked that contained bleach water and windex

-Not washing off the tables or the floors after lunch time before setting cots down

-Sporadiac fire drills. We may have had one every 4-6 months-a far cry from the 1 a month we were SUPPOSED to have.

-They often had teachers acting in AD positions, even when we already had an acting AD. These teachers would use up labor hours by being scheduled for 8 hours, but would not be used to maintain ratios or be used in a classroom.This results in being 'over' our labor hours, and other teachers would get their hours cut to maintain this balance. These teachers also would not have AD qualifications are far as education, making them unqualified to do scheduling or payroll.

-We were asked to replace office supplies with our own money, despite never having any evidence that we were the cause of it being lost. Once, a teacher lost a USB memory stick at our work-and I was asked to buy a new one. I was never reimbursed for this, and I was not involved in it being lost. This is a violation of our company policy

-Our CD often brought in nuts to the center-even peanuts, even though we are explicitly a PEANUT FREE center. We had children with severe nut allergies; even going so far as not being able to breath the same air as it, but she continues to bring them in. This CD also spends alot of her time on personal errands while on company time. She will spend time reading her email for personal reasons (and she is not on her 'break' since she often leaves the center for her breaks to take a nap or go on a walk), going for her dry cleaning, ordering clothes from Nordstroms, on personal phone calls with families or visiting with babies in classrooms (which is not allowed according to company policy). Teachers have been forced to stay beyond their usual schedule because she was not coming around to help get them out.

-There are MANY MANY cases with teachers speaking harshly or inappropriately to kids. These incidents occur often, and in front of management, but management does nothing. While there are levels of frustation, we are not given a chance to step out of our classrooms so that these teachers make take a moment to breath.

-Often, incident reports are not always given to parents.This in part laziness of the teachers and lack of supervision by managements. There is often a lack of communication by both management, and coworking teachers. Often, neither the AD or CD communicate to each other, and tell the staff to do two seperate things without consulting with one another.

These are just a few of a violations that have occurred at center #301512 in colorado while I have worked there, and I finally had to say something because this is not how a day care should be run. This is without too much personal vendetta, because even though we aren't treated right, there are actual violations that are occurring that need to stop.

Location: Denver, Colorado

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Guest

I experienced the exact issues at Kirkland Washington Kindercare. Shady shady.

If you look on the Totem Lake Kindercare FB site you can read about injuries to toddlers that were covered up by MANY in mgmt. This Corp should be shut down for corruption and cover 70s.

Guest

Does anyone have corporate information, other than leaving an email or voicemail with employees right department?

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1132841

depends on what you need all directors have a booklet with numbers to different departments.

Guest

As an Assistant Director of a KinderCare I am very much in disagreement with this blanket statement of KinderCare. It is yours and the other teachers' responsibilities to report every one of these violations to KinderCare Corporate, your licensing rep, labor dept and health and human services child care division.

None of this should be happening and both the AD and CD should lose their jobs asap. I have been with this company 8 years and find it an excellent company to work for. Children ARE our #1 priority.

This will be forwarded to my CD, DM and corporate office immediately.

Despite your KinderCare bashing act, the majority of the administration is here doing an amazing job supporting children and families. The centers that aren't, need to be reported, because this gives the company a bad name and that just isn't right.

Every large company has its weak links and it's up to the great employees in the company to *** them out. You need to report, and not just talk about it.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1090084

Wow as an AD you sure have harsh word to this person. I do agree this person should have reported stuff but I also noticed this person did mention the center number and not just bash Kindercare.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1090084

Get off of your high AD horse, this stuff happens at mostly all Kindercares, the CD and AD dont want to deal with anything so they find excuses to just write it off, and dont come with the children come first *** when they dont... Klc just cares about the money, I was told at our last pdd meeting that we are the forefront of this company, we are what makes the company, we are the most important part of the company but yet we get paid nothing for all the hard work we do, so tell me again how great klc is....

Guest

Wow pretty much just described my Kindercare center to a T....horrible place to work!

Guest

This is such a funny but not post because I work at a Kindercare and 90% of this is true . This is one of the worst companies to work for never send your children here.

Guest

I agree with ceeceemommy. If you still work there you said it yourself, "mandated reporter!" You must call the police if you suspect abuse and the center turns a blind eye.

Also contact the corporate office , if they do nothing call the news. I have done all of these when I worked at child care centers just keep calling until something is done.

These poor kids deserve the best care. Hopefully they shut it down if they don't make the changes ex: fire some of the staff.

Guest

I have worked for KinderCare for 15 yes and I am sorry you have problems at your particular center. KinderCare is a very professional organization, and just because you've had bad experiences, doesn't make all KinderCares bad or unprofessional.

Guest

To any parent touring a Kindcare center: It is always going to appear "nice". As soon as a tour comes through, either the CD, AD, OR PS run around to the classrooms and and "a tour is here".

We are expected to make everything seem perfect to the touring family even though it is not the case at all!!!! DO NOT BRING YOUR CHILDREN HERE!!!!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-847157

I disagree. At least at our center, we are never told about a tour, except offhandedly. We are always 100% open to families coming in to check up on their kids or tours coming by to see our rooms.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-847157

We never run around to tell teachers a tour is here. I have been in our Infant B room on many occasions when our CD walked in with a family.

All of our tours are turned over to the teachers in the classroom, while the CD, AD or PD takes over the care and teaching of the children. Our tours are great, because we take pride in our room, not because someone ran in to warn us. I work at 301207 in TX, and our center is the best in the District. We are a pilot school, so have many unplanned drop-ins by different members of Corporate, all of whom spend a bit of time chatting up teachers to see how they're doing.

A majority of our teachers have been here for 8, 15 even 28 years. These are dedicated ladies, who work hard to make sure kids do come first.

I have my own children here, amd have been extremely happy with their experiences. We totally heart KinderCare.

Guest

Anyone and everyone who said the person who wrote this is "wrong" is wrong themselves. KinderCare is all about the money and as soon as parents are gone, the CD, AD, and program specialist treat staff terrible and do not follow state regs and requirements. After working there, I would never bring my child there or recommend it.

Guest

Who ever wrote this blog is wrong I currently work at 301512 and we have the best directors and the best staff ever things have changed now that there is someone who knows what they are doing

Guest

Yes this company is not a good choice not for teacher are families they are all about numbers and money and not about the kids are families it is really sad....

Guest

Yes, the same occurrence took place at the Kinder Care Learning Center, LLC in Sleepy Hollow, IL (2013)when a child was hurt, and the staff member denied that the child got hurt here. There was shocked, and the incident report with false information was written up after a request was made for that incident report.

Guest

Do not take your children to the kinderCare in Tigard off of North Dakota. The director and assistant Directors are the worst.

The director would bring her 3 kids there with Lice, Croup, Herpes in there mouth, And 5th Disease, and not post it to the parents. Anna LaRosa the director does not care about anyone but her self. Amneh the assistant director is a snake. You think you can go to her about anything and you do and she will stab you in the back.

They will forget your child at school, and then say im sorry i will give you a week of free daycare so you dont call corporate one me.

Stay far away from that *** hole. ITS BAD

Guest

Everything you just wrote is basically what's happening at my center and more. I just started working for KU a couple of months ago as a preschool teacher and the first week I was there I wanted out so badly because I was promised an assistant teacher with great benefits and a flexible schedule so that I can work and go to school.

I was also told that I would be getting paid more because I had an associates in teaching and because I was also still attending school to get my bachelors. Did any of that happen? No! I asked to be a floater instead and when that happen I got treated differently for stepping down.

When our Pre-k teacher quit on the spot they promoted me to lead teacher of the pre-k class, which was fine as long as I wasn't dealing with diapers and what not. It was ok until I started getting chewed out about the way I talked to the parents or handled any situation with the parents. I figured out that you have to baby the parents as much as you have to baby the child, everything you say has to be amazing about the child even if that child is the most terrible kid, especially if he's the one biting you and calling you an SOB everyday and management won't do anything except take him aside talk to him and make him apologize. I've been sick for the last couple of weeks simply because every kid in my classroom has been getting sick and the other kids that come in and out of my room are also sick and slobbering all over the toys and sticking their fingers in places that shouldn't be touched and not washing their hands when told to do so, anyways my point is every time I tried to call in and at least go see the doctor or just sleep it off I wasn't given the choice to do so I was told that I would still have to go in later that day because I was needed.

It wasn't until last week I was able to get that sick day but it wasn't without a little confrontation on the phone and being shunned the following work day. I'm still not feeling well and yet I still have to work. I also got sick because I had to hold in my urine almost my whole shift, I called for someone to relieve me, but the only response I would get was to wait one second, I waited 50 minutes to finally be able to go relieve myself after practically yelling out the door 5 more times. My co-worker sent her students to another classroom so that she could use the kids restroom because she was about to explode on herself from waiting too long and by the time anyone came to relieve her 30 more minutes had passed after she had used the students restroom.

The days are long and frustrating not because of the children but because management doesn't know how to communicate with one another and things are constantly changing. My kids have been learning the curriculum but it is with great difficulty to get the curriculum done. there's not enough time in the day to even get the curriculum done the right way following the correct schedule. It is also hard to maintain a constant "you can do this" attitude when every minute something is changing and you're being grilled for not knowing about the changes and for being irresponsible.

Needless to say I love some of the kids I work with on a daily bases because I know they are learning something everyday and their parents will tell me as well, but is it a place would recommend to have a child at No, is it a place I would recommend to work at No. These kids deserve the best and so do the employees, I mean we are the ones getting our hands dirty and I mean literally and we are the ones who make that connection with the kids, not corporate, not management so when we notice timmy isn't feeling well HE'S FREAKIN NOT FEELING WELL AND NEEDS TO GO HOME, not oh well I can't cause of money.

I can say so much more but this person hit home for the most part cause almost everything this person said is EXACTLY what is going on at my center plus more. To those who say call so and so and report this to so and so because if not you are also the problem you can suck it cause not everyone is willing to listen or even take care of the problem cause then it would mean they actually had a job to do.

Guest

I have worked several years in daycares, although never at kindercare. If you see a problem, REPORT IT TO CORPORATE!!!!

Companies like kindercare want to be free of serious safety concerns. Their reputation depends on it. So, don't be afraid to send anything up the corporate ladder. Even if it costs you your job, no child should be forced to an unsafe environment because you didn't have the guts to tell the truth.

Also BE FAMILIAR WITH STATE REGULATIONS. Should you feel the center is violating state procedure, report it to licensing directly. If you're state is anything like texas, they will work their way around to a visit. Just make sure you do your job right, by the letter of the law, and document any violations you see.

You should do this in ANY job you have. This is to cover your butt and ensure that if it ever comes to a he-said she-said, your word will carry more weight.

And, most importantly, REPORT ANY SUSPECTED ABUSE DIRECTLY TO THE AUTHORITIES.

A childs safety is never worth so little that you should expect anyone else to handle it. Do the right thing and know for certain it has been documented by doing it yourself.

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