Kidz Korner - Channahon IL Day Care Center

My son was at Kidz Korner from three months old up until about a month before his second birthday. I am a first time mom so I didn’t have any experience with day cares when I was looking for a place for my son. I do work in healthcare, specifically nursing homes, so I do know what to look for in terms of health and safety. Kidz Korner is a nice looking facility, the landscaping is kept up nicely and the toys are always put away neatly in the play yard. It is still a fairly new facility and it is located on a main road in a residential area. We were very happy with the care at first. Two of the teachers that they had in the infant room, Miss. Jill and Miss. Deb, were EXCELLENT!! I cannot say enough good things about them, really. They were very caring, attentive and friendly. They always had time to talk to a parent about any concerns and they were always so excited to share a milestone or an art project. You could tell that the infants had their undivided attention and were constantly engaged. Your child stays in the infant room until they turn one and then they are transitioned into the toddler room. The toddler room is where we started to notice a breakdown. It seemed like there was a revolving set of teachers in this room and none seemed to know what the other was doing. On several occasions, I’d pick my child up and he’d be in his spare set of clothes. When I would ask why, the response was usually “I don’t know. It must have happened earlier in the day.” Whenever I would drop off or pick up my child, I noticed that the teachers were not engaged with the kids at all. The kids would be running around playing and the teachers would be standing in a group talking. It didn’t really bother me at the time because I really had nothing to compare it with. I figured it was just ‘down time’ at the beginning and end of the day. It went along fine for a few months with a few weird things here and there. There was a lice outbreak, several bouts of pink eye, an ant infestation in the toddler room, almost constant runny noses and coughs – but that is to be expected in this type of setting, within reason. I think they could have been much cleaner. We were assured by management on several occasions that the toys in the room were disinfected nightly but towards the end of our time at Kidz Korner, one of the teachers admitted that they did NOT disinfect the toys nightly – or hardly at all. This would explain volumes. Also at one point on of the teachers had a birthday party for her child, who was also in the toddler room, on a regular weekday. I thought that was very unprofessional because we then felt obligated to buy this child a present. It’s not like we could “opt out” of the party because my child still had to go to daycare that day. My husband and I had several conversations about finding a new daycare but the location was very convenient for us and our son seemed happy enough. He liked the teachers and had made some “friends” in his class room, so we left it alone. We had also started getting frequent (a couple of times a week) incident reports that our child was being bitten and reports that he was biting others. At one point he even came home with a bite mark on his cheek where you could clearly see both the upper and lower teeth marks. I didn’t make a big deal over it because that’s what kids do. They fight, shove, bite, have tantrums – it’s the only way they are able to express their anger before they start talking. I didn’t think anything of it until I was given a letter from the management staff in January. It stated: “This letter is to inform you that your child is being CONSIDERED for disenrollment due to biting. According to our records show that (child’s name) has bit 6 times. Our policy is no more than three allowed.” When I questioned the manager about this behavior and how it was being addressed, she told me they would separate the biter and give him or her a time out. I told her that he doesn’t bite at home and she looked me straight in the eye and said: “Oh, I’m sure he learned it here.” So they were considering the disenrollment of my child for a bad habit that they admitted that he learned at their facility. That seemed very wrong to me. My husband and I immediately started looking at other facilities in the area, just in case. The following week I got a call in the AM from Kidz Korner saying that I had to come get my son because he bit someone. My husband and I both went to get him and they told us that he couldn’t come back. There was no discussion, no talk of other methods of discipline, nothing. They didn’t even take us into a private area to discuss it. They announced his dismissal right out in the open, in front of other teachers and parents. It was so embarrassing that I wanted to cry. I asked how much time we had to find other placement for him and the manager said: “Oh no, he can’t come back.” I was furious. When we got home I pulled out their policy book that we were given upon enrollment and there is no rule about biting, at all. There is actually a very detailed discipline process for behaviors outlined step by step that they did not follow, in this case. Initially, I was incredibly angry and wanted to lash out and write a horrible review. Fortunately, we found a FANTASTIC new center that we are so happy with. Our child has been there a month and there has not been one report of biting or any behaviors at all. I now have no doubt that Kidz Korner and their staff were not properly monitoring the children, keeping them engaged and involved in activities. Now, I am very glad this happened because my son is in a much better environment. I would not recommend Kidz Korner.