Apologies for the long post. Our child came home from daycare babying his arm late last week (Thursday). Our child is young but very verbal. We were told by our child that the teacher was mad at him for not sitting and she pulled his arm and hurt him. He said the teacher's name, when it happened, and why, despite being in pain and crying at this point. I immediately called the pediatrician's line and brought him in. I also contacted the daycare owner/director by phone and text when she didn't answer to tell her what he said to me. He told the pediatrician also who did it, why, and where despite being terrified. I was so proud and so crushed because he LOVED the daycare. The doctor fixed his arm which had nursemaid's elbow and made notes in the report about what he reported to her in case I wanted to report to CPS.

Long story short, the director/owner made us wait until yesterday (Monday) to see the video. She said she had plans on Friday (daycare was closed for conferences) and that to her the incident looked like an accident on the tape.

Well, my husband saw the tape and while the teacher did touch my son's arm, he knew that wasn't what caused nursemaid's elbow. So he asked to watch more video and about 10 minutes later it happened. Our son was not listening and she grabbed his arm, swung him around, and picked him up. This was done in a way that looked inappropriate and like it was done in frustration. This means the teacher grabbed our son by the arm twice, the second being obviously when he was injured.

When I came in to see the video I was appalled. The director brought in the teacher and made her sit in front of me and apologize. I believe that it was a mistake, but one that has no excuse. My son was not behaving in any way inappropriate for a 3 year old. He was merely walking away from her. The director began making excuses like that my son is small and the teacher didn't think about her strength, that she's one of her best teachers, that she's never seen anything like this in 20+ years of working in daycares and now owning her own, etc.

Further, our son had told the director/owner that his arm hurt that day. She said he claimed he'd been scratched and so they put a band-aid on his arm despite there being no visible scratch and then he babied his arm the rest of the day. The incident happened at about 9:30 a.m. and we didn't figure it out until 6:15 p.m. when we got home.

Lastly, the teacher wasn't removed even temporarily. We also have another, younger child and the teacher was still the lead teacher of that child's room. So ultimately we didn't feel comfortable at all returning our kids there.

We removed the kids immediately after both seeing the video on Monday and they started at a new daycare today. I sent an email attachment letter to the director/owner requesting the rest of October back, our security deposits back, and November back (we paid in advance) as well as the co-pay for our son's doctor visit back. I have documentation from the doctor that my son identified the teacher's name. In a normal situation the contract requires a month's notice. For safety reasons we didn't abide by that. We weren't required to pay in advance but did. The security deposits were hefty ($500 for both of our kids).

My questions are these: what are my chances of getting this money back? She's usually VERY fast to respond and I've received no response yet. Also, should I also report to CPS? She said by law they had to report it to licensing but I also wanted to know if I need to report there. Do people in situations like this have to resort to small claims? We've never had a situation like this. I'm sad, angry, and frustrated.

Reply