We originally placed our two-year old child with Grasslawn because they were the only place that offered drop-in care in Redmond, which was all we needed at the time. Our son seemed to do just fine, so when we needed to change to full-time care, we enrolled him. My inquiries with the state showed they were properly licensed and had no complaints lodged against them. At the time it also helped that they charged less than other daycares in the area. Well, you get what you pay for.
We first grew concerned when we noticed an uncomfortably high turnover rate with the staff. Our son had four different teachers in the year he was enrolled, and the center had three different managers. Manager #1 and Teacher #1 told us they were leaving to start their own daycare, "Where we can focus less on the number of children we need to enroll, and more on giving quality care to a small number of children." When we asked teacher #3 why she was leaving, she told us stories about not being paid on time, and not receiving overtime she had earned. The center obviously needed updating and maintenance, and there were times when we were certain there were more than the 7 children allowed per teacher by our State Law.
We also noticed on two different occasions that upon picking up our child, he had been in a soiled diaper. Althought the person in charge each time stated that it, "Must have just happened, " the state of the diaper told us this was not the case. On several occasions, our payments were not recorded, so we received invoices and late notices, only to have our payments re-appear when we complained. We were also overcharged for two months, until I put a request in writing to have our account corrected.
We put in three weeks notice that we were dis-enrolling our child, when we were only required to provide two weeks. Immediately, our son began developing terrible diaper rash. We would take him home and treat him for a few days, only to have it reappear when he went back to daycare. We provided diaper rash cream, plenty of very aborbent diapers, and asked repeatedly for the condition to be monitored. The final straw occurred after I showed the teacher one morning that his rash had reappeared, and she promised to keep an eye on it. My husband picked our son up that evening, and upon checking his diaper before leaving the center, found it soiled. When asked when the diaper had been last checked, the teacher stated that it was, "Only and hour ago." The fact that the feces had dried to my son's bottom told us that it was longer than that. Also, the diaper rash had developed, in only a few hours, into open sores all over his bottom and privates!
We moved our son to another daycare immediately, a week earlier than planned. I was told that because I had no proof of my verbal complaints to the center, and no photographic or other evidence of my son's injuries, filing a complaint with the state would do little or no good. I will do so anyway, even if it just to get on record that there is a problem at the center. At least four other students from my son's class have also left the center, though I am not aware of their reasons.
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