daycare turnover: what's normal?

Breezy8407

We are on our 5th week of daycare at a center. There are many reasons we liked it - new, small (only 6 babies and 6 toddlers right now), reasonably priced, somewhat close to home, and most importantly it just felt right.

When we started there was one main toddler room teacher who would also spend time with our babies occasionally at the beginning and end of the day, and the main infant room teacher who our babies spent most of their time with. Infant room teacher's last day was last Friday, and toddler room teacher's last day will be next Friday. 

So, two of the teachers will have left in 6 weeks time. 

Did we catch them at a weird transition time and it just happened to fall within our first two months or should I be concerned?

MrsWindyCity

I think this depends on the daycare (and timing). I've heard that centers have a high turnover rate. However, we were at our last center for 2 years, and only 1 teacher left (from the infant/toddler rooms combined). A few switched around, moving from room to room, but the turnover was really low for us, thankfully. 

DS has been at his current center/school since July and one of the teachers has already left in that time.

July18Bride

When LO was in a daycare center it was very high turnover. I also felt like I never got an offical notice that someone was leaving/someone new was arriving...there were many days i would pick him up and have no clue what the person's name was that was caring for my child all day. This was one of the main reasons we switched to an in home day care environment, which has worked out great for us.

If it is something you are concerned about, ask the day care director what their policy is on introducing new people and the trend/turnover rate. You may have caught them at a bad time...or this may be an often occurance.

Breezy8407

 Thanks everyone...I know only time will tell. I have always heard turnover at centers is rather high, so I am not totally surprised.

I talked to H over lunch who dropped them off and he said the more recent teacher to leave said she has some personal things to attend to. Otherwise, she had been there for over a year. that makes me feel a bit better.

They have sent out emails to the parents letting us know when the new people have started. As far as I know, they are all college graduates, which was another reason we chose this place.