KinderCare Learning Centers reviews

The negatives make the job unbearable. Right now half the people at the center are under more stress than they will be able to handle long-term and I could see a few cracking short-term. We deal with many kids that have special needs (learning disabilities, autism, ADHD, extreme behavioral problems, have been abused by parents, absent parents, and the list goes on). We haven't been given the training and resources to deal with all these needs. Because of this, classroom management issues and behavior problems are constant. It's a constant barrage on your central nervous system. The constancy of the issues wears one down. Some of these kids are mean and abusive--to the teachers, directors, and other kids. Expectations placed upon teachers are at times insurmountable. We're expected to care for all these kids, do paperwork, prepare curriculum (okay, when and how?), keep the rooms and the playground "tour ready", manage meals, manage naps, ... etc ad nauseam. When you need help (everyone needs help), sometimes someone comes. Other times, there's no help coming. You may go hours without a potty break. I've called for help for a potty break and ended up having to use the children's toilets. We're not supposed to do that, but when no help is coming, what's a person supposed to do? At times there's pressure to work even when you're sick or having a mental health crisis. I think that stems from the demands on the directors being unreasonable. I think every manager I've met is a good person. But, they can become mean, unhelpful, and unreasonable at times. Besides being abused from the kids, you never know when you're going to experience micro-aggressions from management. Again, I honestly don't think it's their fault. Too many demands are being placed on them and the excrement rolls downhill. I haven't had any major issues with parents, but I have had coworkers that have. Scheduling is inconsistent and unrealistic. One week, you may end up working 50 hours. The next week, you're expected to take 3 hour lunch breaks. Everything is about churn and burn to make the center look good, keep enrollment up, and keep employee hours down (unless you're needed, then expect 45-50 hours). The health care plan isn't great. If you have any health issues, expect to struggle to find a specialist in network. And, it's too expensive. If they paid more, then perhaps the cost would be reasonable. But, the wages are too low. Full medical insurance should be provided at no cost. The demands placed upon you can come non-stop and from multiple directions: the kids, the behaviors, unrealistic expectations, pressure to work when your sick, and who knows what else. The curriculum is a joke. You're supposed to be teaching these kids. But, the kids are crazy because of all the issues I've mentioned. You don't have the prep time and what they give you isn't well written and it's definitely not written by someone that has worked with these kids. The turnover is extremely high. At our center, it would be hard for me to calculate the yearly turnover of staff. We've had a few people that were only there a week or two, so I don't remember everyone. I would guess the turnover rate is over 100% a year, where more people end up leaving (for whatever reason) than end up staying over a period of 12 months. That leads to complete chaos. In less than two years, the center that I'm at has had three directors. How can things function when you don't know who will be in the office today? There's zero stability. Because you're dealing with stress and kids with germs, it's impossible to stay healthy all the time. You will call in sick and at times will be pressured to work sick. The center is understaffed, so one person off can cause more demands and stress on everyone else. The worst situation I saw in terms of staffing was when we had four people running the center. Realize, for things to function properly, you need one person in the office to answer the phones, handle the paperwork, and do all the administrative functions of the center. We also have to feed these kids, so someone has to spend at least an hour or two in the kitchen preparing meals and snacks. I'm guessing this day we had 25-30 kids. With four people total, and at least one or two of those four people needing to do administrative and kitchen duties, we realistically only had two (and at a couple points three) people handling all those children from 6:30 in the morning until 6:00 at night. What happens if parents don't show up at 6:00? Well, we obviously can't lock the doors and tie the remaining children to the knob on a leash. We have to stay there. At times it happens, and it extends an already long day. The toys in some of the rooms are inappropriate. We have a bunch of preschoolers and the room has a plethora of large wooden blocks. The kids don't play with the blocks. They throw the blocks, hit each other with the blocks, and constantly bang on things with the blocks. When management is confronted with the issue, we're told the blocks are "age appropriate" and need to stay in there. There's a huge difference between something that is age appropriate if there are one or two kids playing with the toy, and something that is age appropriate in a group setting with kids with various learning disabilities and behavioral problems. The blocks are not appropriate for those children. And, surprise, surprise, we've had some kids hurt. Everything that hits you daily is unmanageable. Expectations are unrealistic. The proper training and support isn't consistently available. Turnover is unbearably high. It's constant chaos.

Cons were that I was, especially towards the end of my time there, constantly pulled into a classroom to provide additional support because higher management would not allow us to hire more teachers until we met certain occupancy goals. This mean that we had constant holes in coverage, and I would be pulled away from my duties (cooking) to be a teacher. This became very stressful as I was effectively juggling two jobs at once. My hours were also cut down to 30 hours/ week from 40 after higher ups said that I should not need that much time to do my job, meaning that I was still doing almost all of the same responsibilities and filling in the classrooms in two hours less time.