I work in childcare in Iowa. While Iowa has a reputation of being good in childcare, I can safely say that is not accurate! Childcare in Iowa sucks!! My current job:
Ratios are never enforced.
Staff are neglectful and consistently leave kids alone for brief periods of time.
They yelled at me for not sending 2 kids in the bathroom alone with each other (the stalls don’t have doors)
Toddlers and even infants are yelled at for simple mistakes
It doesn’t seem any true educational value is happening within any age group.
They put infants, babies and toddlers in front of a TV the majority of the day.
The discipline techniques for children are not developmentally appropriate.
My boss uses a condescending tone to kids, parents (somehow gets away with that), and staff.
I get paid $10 an hour.
My boss already had at least one instance of not paying me my full pay
Since I’ve started, I’ve been given no trainings other than the ones mandated by law.
Since I’ve started, I have stated some of these concerns and get responded to with a condescending tone and ignored.
Can Iowa DHS do anything? I can’t think of how department of Labor could get involved as I was reimbursed for the time missed on my card.