Correct me if I'm wrong, but:

-You regularly work alone with 16 or 17 children

-You don't know how many children you have when you've got them

-You aren't doing a regular head count to make sure you've still got all the children you started with

-You daily allow a child to leave the space without verifying that the child is being safely picked up or officially checked out by a legal guardian or approved alternate pick-up person

-You aren't sure who took that child yesterday. . . which means you aren't even sure if anybody took the child at all

-There's no record of the child being picked up or by whom

-You don't know if anybody ever tracked that child down

-But you're primarily worried about getting written up

In the wrong job? Yes. The facility you work for should not be open. And you should not be working with a lot of children at this point in your life, because it sounds like you've gotten too overwhelmed with the daily chaos to keep the kids safe. They can't advocate for themselves and you shouldn't endanger them for your own financial security. I know it's a terrifying, humiliating struggle to be out of work, especially if you're supporting others, but you need to think of this kind of child care facility as not even a job option. Take it off the table. Work a McDonald's drive-thru, sell newspapers on a street corner, do anything but participate in a "job" that endangers vulnerable people. It would be better to end up living out of a car than to be responsible for a child's kidnapping or death.

Honestly, I have no idea what'll happen, if anything, because clearly there's no oversight in this situation. But if that child was picked up by an unapproved person or, God forbid, left the facility on their own, you can probably write your job off and maybe start looking for a lawyer. If the child is safe and was picked up by an approved person, then--you still need to leave the job immediately. The way things are operating, you'll end up with charges against you someday.

Reply