With the number of working parents
increasing, childcare is becoming an essential part of more households. Being a mom of a three year it is important to
me to have the ability to watch my son at his childcare facility. I have been
an educator at private preschools for the past four years and have had the
luxury of being in the same building as where my son attends school. Most
parents do not have the assurance that I do when they leave their child to go
to work. Usually parents either wait
until the end of the day and hope they see their child’s teacher before they
leave or have to step away from work to make a phone call to the childcare
center in order to know about their child’s day. I feel that Texas should
enforce all childcare centers to have surveillance cameras in the classrooms
and outside on the playgrounds.
A video surveillance system at any childcare
facility can help keep the children safe and provide parents with peace of mind.
For those who don’t have a child, the feeling of leaving your “life” in the
care of a stranger is the hardest thing for a parent to do. The teachers at childcare
centers play a huge role when they have children 8+ hours a day. The center becomes a second home to your
child. When a child comes home with a scratch that’s unexplained or a diaper
that hasn’t been changed in hours, it is natural for a parent to think the
worst.
On another hand, having surveillance cameras
in the classroom is an asset to teachers. It provides protection to the
caregivers in the event of any negative accusations. Having cameras in the
classrooms and letting the parents have access to them daily via a secure webpage
will help keep the children safe, provides peace of mind to parents, and
provides evidence for any incidents or accusations that may occur.
Although my colleague’s blog has presented some good points and ideas, the overall purpose of it fails in the aspects of the questions it fails to address.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, who pays for this regulation, the daycare facility? What if it is a home daycare and the facilitator takes care of family friends? At what number of students do you enforce the surveillance issue? You are expecting all daycare facilities, no matter the size of student attendance to pay for a high cost surveillance system that allows outside aces on a daily basis. Many parents already pay a high cost for daycare and this additional cost would then fall to them as well. This might push some who can’t afford it to use an unregulated facility, with no camera, where their child actually has a good chance of getting hurt.
Second, how is the video surveillance secure? Who monitors it? Unfortunately, in this day and age there are too many individuals who would LOVE to be able to access children playing at a daycare on a regular basis, and believe me, even if it is secure, pedophiles would still find a way around those boundaries. Just like hackers can still find their way around CIA firewalls.
Third, this blog also doesn’t address the “helicopter” parents the news speaks of and that are too involved in their child’s life. Is a parent watching allowed to call and make changes or suggestions to what they are seeing as a live feed? Many parents would almost undoubtedly call more than once a day about what they see, a child not sharing a toy, their child not getting enough of a snack, etc. and that would cause the employee to pay more attention to certain kids that others.
While surveillance is good idea on theory, it still does not take the place of an aware and active parent and a good, stable daycare facility. You can always ask other parents, read reviews online, and if there is 1 instance of uncomfortable “scratches”, change daycare facilities. There are enough out there.
One question you might ask of me after reading this is, am I a parent? The answer is, it doesn’t matter because this is an issue about regulation and control, not good parenting.