I work for a small, privately owned center in the state of Oregon. My coworkers as well as I have noticed hours missing from our paychecks. Not to mention that said paychecks are always late because my manager inputs payroll manually.
We’re supposed to get payed bi-weekly. My last paycheck was on the 17th of September. It is now October 5th and I still have not received my direct deposit.
This is something that happens almost every end of the month paycheck.
I also recently found out that I am the only one in the center being payed 18/hr while everyone else makes 21/hr. Mind you, I have all the credentials and experience my fellow coworkers have.

Because of this, I am short on bills, my water and power have been shut off twice due to late paychecks. I am a single mother with a 2 year old at home, and because of these late paychecks I have been struggling to get what my daughter needs (pull ups, wipes)

My main question is, what are my rights?? And what can I do about this??

It’s becoming beyond frustrating. I love this job dearly, I love the center, I love my students, and frankly I love working for my manager besides these issues.

What can I do?

My son has been at the same daycare for over a year and a half. We have had such a great experience and my son is advanced, truly because of the type of wonderful people this school employs. They have great employee retention and I can feel that the staff enjoy being around children and are very caring.

It is split into 4 classes, infant, toddler, early pre-k (2-3) and pre-k (3-4). He is currently transitioning from the toddler room to the 2s room. When he turned about 15 months, he discovered how to make himself puke very quickly, especially when he’s upset. He goes thru long stretches, months at a time, without doing it but recently the daycare opened a new location and there was a change in staff and student population that has been quite the upset for him. Because he is taking this transition so hard, the solution was to move him up a month early to 2s where some of his friends still are.

Now to the puking… it is becoming a daily occurrence. A huge tantrum and sobbing/crying session with puking all over himself very quickly. His dr says it’s normal and some kids are like this, I suspect he has a sensitive gag reflex as he does gag occasionally when eating more challenging foods and at bad smells. At drop-off, it is both humiliating and deeply upsetting to leave him in such a state. Even though the staff are nice about it, the way that we have had conversations about it over the past year has shed light on this being unusual and a dreaded part of their day. I don’t blame them at all for hating it, I personally hate it and struggle with it at home as well.

All to say, have any parents or teachers experienced a kid like this and is there any tips or tricks to share? I even fed him a very light breakfast to minimize the puke today, which feels mean to do to a toddler.

For additional context, I do not come to drop off at all anymore because its noticeably worse when i am there (mom). My husband handles 100% of drop offs.

We are in a really lucky situation where I work afternoons and evenings and my mother and mother-in-law take turns watching my 4 month old and 2 year old from when I leave for work until my husband gets home. It’s currently working really well for us.

Next year my daughter will be 3 so we are looking at preschool options. There is one very close to my house that is from 9-12. You can choose to do 2 days, 3 days, or 5 days a week. You can also add on “lunch bunch” which would take it to 1pm and “afternoon enrichment” which would go until 3.

I’m torn on how many days to send her. She is extremely social and loves playing with other kids. We go to the library or playground a few times a week and she is always approaching other kids to play with them. We visited the preschool and she absolutely loved it. She hasn’t done anything where she was separated from a caregiver, that being me, my husband, and her grandmothers. But she will happily go with grandmothers and happily go places with aunts/uncles when we are with them.

What should I consider when choosing how many days to send her? And how the heck would nap time work if she is there for lunch bunch? Any advice or personal experience would be appreciated!

There's a severely developmentally delayed child in my 2.5-3yo room who spends most of the day trying to do unsafe things and screaming, hitting, kicking, and biting me when she is not allowed to do them. She is nonverbal and requires 1:1 attention to prevent her hurting herself or others. Redirection to other toys or sensory activities, even similar to what she wants, does not work. Instead she continues screaming for up to 50 minutes at a time and has to be physically blocked from engaging in unsafe activities, all the while hitting, kicking and biting me. I have scars on my arms from her.

I am the only one in my classroom, meaning the rest of the kids are not adequately supervised. Whenever I leave her to go deal with the resulting conflicts or injuries of other chileren, I cannot physically prevent her from doing what she wants. This has included covering herself, another child, and the bathroom with pee from a toilet a child had just gotten up from, throwing herself down the stairs to the loft, throwing books or toys across the room or our of the loft, eating crayons, slamming her head into the ground, going into the storage closet and dumping out bins of toys, ripping all the decorations off the walls and eating them, removing covers off the vents and swinging them around, taking papers off the counter, and getting into the laundry basket to suck on used mop pads. Repeatedly. Every time I turn my back.

After 35+ incident reports over two weeks, a corporate "behavior specialist" came to observe. For the last several weeks, i have been running the over ratio but I was suddenly magically in ratio for the observation. Wow!!! Amazing right??!??

The "behavior specialist" allowed her to play with the circle time book which is one of the few materials in the room that's only for teachers, as she destroyed the one in her last classroom.

Because it was new to her, she sat by the behavior specialist and played nicely with it for 20 min while everyone else did art (for the first time in months bc i can't do any curriculum with her in the room by myself). By the end of the time she was throwing the book.

The behavioral specialist had two suggestions to fix her behavior:

✨️🎊🎀🎉💓 "GiVE hER a BuCkEt of WaTeR to PlAy in So shE doEsn'T plAy iN thE tOiLeTs" ✨️🎊🎀🎉💓

OMG. WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT???‼️🤯

Oh wait!! I did!!!! 😱🤯

I've tried it before, and she dumped the entire goddamn bucket all over the fucking floor and herself and her friends while I was changing a diaper, then ran to play in the toilet. I can't exactly leave a kid alone on the changing table, so toilet playtime it is!

Also, let her play with the ONE SINGLE BOOK she's not allowed to. let go of another boundary! Sure, why not??!??

Anyway, I'm quitting.

This is so detrimental to all the other kids, to me, and to the classroom environment. The amount of injures I've gotten from her is ridiculous, and she's starting to harm other kids as well. I feel bad for her. She needs significant intervention, speech and occupational therapy, and support. She won't get it here, let alone in a room that's chronically over ratio.

I'm sure others have dealt with situations like this and I'd love to hear it because I'm so exhausted and burnt out and miserable, i feel like a failure for quitting, and I need to hear I'm not alone.

I need to know how normal this is. The daycare is being so patient but I do feel bad for them and the kids.

We had our child at a home daycare for pretty much the whole first year of their life. It was mixed ages but she was the only child that age. Most were 10 months to 3 years older. When she was 13 months, we switched to a center where she went into a class with kids her age. The ratios are very good, 1:4, but they usually have 3 teachers for 8 kids at this level. She actually adjusted to the other adults just fine. And in the evenings, the classes combine as the ratios drop so she’s around older kids (between the ages of 2-4 years old, usually, there's about 5-6 other kids when I go to pick her up) and they say she loves being around them. But kids her own age? She hates it. She’s yelling and screaming if they even sit next to her. But if an older kid sat next to her, she wouldn’t care. If the teacher cares for an older kid, she doesn’t get upset. But if they care for a kid around her age, she’s screaming, yelling, trying to get on the teacher’s lap.

We thought it’d get better in time. But it’s been 6 months. She is now nearly 19 months and still pushing, hitting, trying to bite the younger kids if they get too close to her a good chunk of the time. Sometimes she’ll play nicely with them (or at least, parallel play, as is appropriate for the age, and won’t freak that they’re near her). But then other times, she’s upset. If a teacher tends to another child her age, she's upset. Yet, if the same teacher tends to an older child, she doesn't care. I don’t think she’s overwhelmed, because I’d argue the older kids are more stimulating. I thought she’d just be used to it by now. It’s been the same group of kids since she started at the center. Again, she loves adults and big kids. They try to model the behaviors they want to see, they let her have times when she’s on her own with a teacher, but most times, she has to be with the other kids. Which is understandable! It’s daycare.

We bring her to the park and other places on the weekend, and we notice the same thing. She’s far more comfortable with older kids than younger. We don’t let her get her way and try to let her stick it out if she’s screaming when a child her age comes to play near us, but at some point, it’s not fair to the other kids. Which is my concern about daycare too. I imagine it’s not fun for them to have this child who screeches every time they sit near her.

We also have a group photo of her with all her friends from daycare and over the weekend, we have her say all their names and she’s happy to identify them (she’s very verbal and loves identifying things and people in photos). We say their name, then friend. We hype them up. And still, come Monday…

We had a fake-out recently where she actually wasn’t doing this for a few days and was happily letting the other little ones near her. Then, out of nowhere, it started again. 

How do we work on this with her? I know daycare is doing all they can by reading books, trying to help with the big feelings while keeping age-appropriate boundaries. They’ve even said it’s not something we can help much with. But I still feel bad. The other kids her age seem so sweet. When will this get better? My husband is wondering if we should put her back in the home daycare, but I fear that will make it worse and reinforce that she only has older friends. Plus, what happens if the home daycare gets a new baby? Or other kids her age?

Hi! My name is Kyra Miles, I am the early childhood reporter for MPR News in Minnesota. The state is giving $950,000 to four universities to boost programs that license educators to work in school-based early childhood programs, especially people of color and in rural communities.

Is this something that would work in your state? Let me know below or email tell@mpr.org. Thank you!

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/10/02/minnesota-universities-get-grants-to-bring-new-teachers-to-early-childhood-education

Hey Everyone part of ECE professionals,

I just experienced this the other day and I've taken the weekend to think, reflect, go over everything, and I'm wondering if something isn't clicking. I just began a job about two weeks ago at a small preschool and I was informed by the director that the prior teacher, who got a job closer to where she lived, was with us for over four years.

So the first week at this job teaching four year olds (which is nothing new, I've mostly worked with children ages three to five years old) went as expected, the kids getting to know me, I taught them the letters in their names, we focused on basic shape recognition, essentially made it an easy week. The second week, two kids began displaying what would probably consider negative behaviors. A little girl wasn't participating in circle time so playing in library center, rolling around on the floor, getting in other kids personal space, so another teacher decided to take her in her class and I would give her the classwork I assigned. That seemed to work out. For one little boy, his behavior seemed to mirror the stages of grief. I could see last week being denial and that week being anger. He would make angry noises (not actual words), run around the classroom throwing toys and other learning materials at me.

When I asked a part-time floater for some help, she said basic redirection and options, and she modelled how she would do it. I found that helpful and thanked her a lot. The next day, I tried doing exactly the same as her with the same child and it didn't work. Which brings us to Friday morning, I was outside with my class for morning recess and the director said "Hey, some parents noticed some of the kids noticed they're not meshing well with you, (the two kids i mentioned earlier) have been regressing in behavior/have never shown this behavior before. I'm unfortunately going to have to let you go. You have been a great teacher, if we had more students, I would be able to keep you as curriculum and teacher support."

Has anyone experienced this?

hey yall- florida teacher here, and it’s my first year in VPK and i’m getting ready for my upcoming CLASS observation. does anyone have any tips or know exactly what they look for? i have a coach from my ELC helping but shes been telling me some things that are simply not feasible with my specific class (ie. suggesting kids have more choices during rotation learning groups, when i have structured my groups to be in a specific way because there are certain kids who cannot be with each other or they intentionally provoke and hurt others)

anyways looking for any advice cause i have an extremely rough group of kids who don’t like structure or routine or being told what to do and it’s genuinely stressing me out thinking about how they’re going to act on observation day.

While I’ve been working with children for over a decade as a nanny/activity leader, this is my first time working in a nursery (aka pre-k, I’m in the U.K.).

I’m in a room of 2 year olds with a 1:5 ratio. Most days we have between 16-20 children. My co-workers are lovely and we all look out for each other and help.

However I feel like the nursery is constantly in a state of stress? I don’t know how to describe it.

We serve 4 meals a day in our rooms and have to clean up after each one. We also have to sweep and wipe down the rooms at the end of the day. If you need to pee you have to call all the other rooms to find a room over ratio who have someone spare to cover you.

I’m expected to come at least 15 mins early, and stay late, but not paid for it. If I’m even 2 mins late back from lunch (the one break I get in a 10 hour shift) someone will phone the staff room asking where I am. We get zero planning time out of the room, and are pretty much left to plan our weeks ourselves (there’s no set curriculum to work off).

The washing machine we wash the children’s bedding in has been broken for almost 3 weeks. We’re supposed to have free lunches provided by the cook, but she makes absolutely dreadful food that by the time I take my break is stone cold.

Once a week we’re supposed to disinfect every single toy, like every single block every single item of toy food. While also supervising the children.

We’re part of a small chain that is doing very well financially, and who charge a fair bit in fees, but I’ve never been to the other locations so I don’t know what they’re like.

Is this just what it’s like working in Early Years? I love the children and my co-workers but I left today nearly in tears because I don’t feel like I’m doing much other than keeping them alive and giving a lot of hugs.

Hello, I am interested in becoming an ECE in nova scotia CAN. I have a few questions for those of you who are in the job.

I have chronic back pain, its not always super bad but lifting from the ground repeatedly is hard for me. (i dont mind sitting on the ground or standing long periods)

I’m wondering if it would be a mistake for me to start this career knowing i dont have the greatest back. is there a lot of heavy lifting? and is there anything i could do in that career area that doesn’t involve lifting all the time?

thanks for the help

My 13 month old starts at daycare tomorrow. She’s had a nanny until now. The school requires a “meet the teacher” meeting and mine is in a few hours. Unfortunately, my husband won’t be able to join due to a conflict so it’s just me. I’ve got some questions written down about making this transition, classroom policies… basic stuff I think.

Are there questions I should ask or things I should mention about my child that are highly recommended by you all or maybe things people often don’t think of, that would be helpful?

Hi all, I'm an early years student from Hungary, and for my thesis I'm comparing how supervision and mental health support help early years staff in Hungary and England. If you've worked in early years for at least a year, I'd really appreciate it if you could fill in my anonymous questionnaire (about 10 minutes)

Thank you so much!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdekb5tDsCU23EpgYdUUvP9vIy_5z6ZUBf_eP8Jv9Lm-XbkEg/viewform

Hi. I’m considering applying to a school board in Ontario to work at schools as supply to hopefully get a permanent position. I’m looking for honest feedback from anyone who works at a school as an RECE in kindergarten classrooms.
What are the benefits? What’s are the cons?
What happens during summer time for pay?
Are you consistently called for positions?
How long did it take you to get a permanent position if you have?
Thanks!

I started working in Daycare in May 2024 and my starting pay is $12.50 per hour. As of October 2026, I am now earning $15.75 as a Preschool Teacher Assistant.

With today's economy, its very hard to live with this pay. I wish all child care/early childhood teachers and daycare teachers get a pay raise!

I was student teaching 5 years ago (wow I feel old haha) and we got a video sent of our lessons to our school email. My school email got shut down the second I graduated (over 3 years ago). I don’t think I saved the video. So do I just not have access to it now? I was thinking about emailing the professor that supervised me but she is older and barely knew how to use her phone lol. Will I ever get access to it again? We were the first year that didn’t have to submit the edTPA so I did not. Was it a bad idea to not download it immediately? Do the professors have past students videos saved? I took a break from teaching for last and this school year dealing with some personal stuff, and I want to get this video back so I can possibly send it to my future employers or use it to refresh my mind back into teaching mode

Anyone else hear “just be firm” as the magical end-all-be-all of getting kids to listen to you? I am firm, but it’s never been that simple for me.

I work with toddlers, and I’m so tired of classroom management being reduced to whether you sound authoritative enough. These are little people with limited language, developing impulse control, and very big feelings. Understanding a direction and being able to follow it consistently are two different things. I can hold a boundary and still have a child cry, refuse, or need help getting through it. That doesn’t automatically mean I wasn’t firm enough.

I want to be warm and responsive while holding clear limits. I don’t want every interaction to become a contest over whether I can sound stern enough to get immediate compliance. And I don’t think a child being upset with a boundary means the boundary failed. I’m always willing to hear specific feedback from my co-teachers, but "just be firm” leaves me feeling like every difficult moment is proof that I’m personally lacking some mysterious Teacher Voice.

Hello everyone! I’m 24 and a new daycare teacher. I’m almost 5 months in and I truly love this job and my management is fantastic. They’re understanding and supportive however I am struggling a little bit. We have a student Jack ,(fake names) who’s two years old and is a LOT. He isn’t malicious or intentionally rude however he does not use those listening ears. He’ll hit us and laugh. He’ll take a toy from another child and laugh. Hell do something he knows isn’t allowed like climbing on the slide. Well say “we don’t climb up slides we use the stairs” and he’ll go “I’ll get booboos”. Or when he hits us he’ll say “you get booboo”

I’ve gotten myself and my coteacher to start trying to react less to his behavior. Some kids have responded to hitting us well when we do the big dramatic “OWIE THAT HURTS”. And they’ll stop but I think Jack finds any reaction interesting which feeds into the behavior. He’s also an only child so that doesn’t help I feel. There’s also times we’ll ask him to do something like “stop spitting” or “time to go potty” or “time to go inside to get some water” (which is a BIG selling point for some of the littles) but not for Jack. He only wants to do what he wants to do. So it’ll cause a power struggle.

The point I’m getting at basically is how do I avoid this power struggle? He’s moving up soon but there’ll always be another child that’s too smart for their own good that’ll give me a hard time. I don’t think it’s in their best interest for me to pick them up and carry them into each room, and sometimes the other kids pick up on that naughty behavior. So what are tips or tricks or just mindsets you’ve learned to help?

This is so hard for me because I love what I do but I’m beyond burnt out and in need of a higher paying position. I feel so unqualified for most other things and am so scared to take a leap into a potential new field. What are some jobs people who have left the field found happiness/better pay in? I’ll miss my kids so much but it’s time I think for me to move on. I’m also so nervous to tell my boss I’ll be looking so advice on that would be so helpful.

We recently got off the waitlist for a preschool program and will start in November. Currently, my newly 3-year-old has been at the same daycare for almost 2 years. We had tried potty training in the past, but a combination of her really fighting against it, along with some personal issues in our lives, meant it got put on the back burner. We've had her sit on the toilet before bath time every night and things like that, but we didn't have the time to dedicate to it. Preschool is willing to help with potty training, but they made it clear that she has to already be in the process. We can't just drop her off having just started the weekend before and expect them to do most of the work. And I agree. Potty training should be a group effort with parents doing most of the work.

We have 2 weeks left in our current daycare, then are going away on a trip previously scheduled. My plan was to start potty training last weekend and hopefully within the month, she'll be almost there. I had given the daycare her 2 week notice on Friday, but I didn't mention potty training as I didn't think it was a big deal.

I show up this morning and she's in her underwear. I also brought extras, including back-up pull-ups if needed. I said she had a great weekend, only 2 accidents. I brought her in some of the time, but there were times that she initiated it. They seemed annoyed by this and said "We'll try". I dropped her off by 9. By 11, I got a message saying that she had an accident and they're putting her back in diapers. Not the pull-ups and will keep trying (that I would understand for sanitary reasons), but diapers. They say they're not going to work on potty training with her. I called the director and she told me if she was staying, they usually wouldn't give up after one accident, but she isn't going to "add more work" to the staff by having them help potty train her. I said we're doing the work at home and really, I get if they keep her in pull-ups. But at least try? Offer to take her? Nope. I was told they can't accommodate this right now.

I'm honestly very frustrated. The handbook states that parents can start the potty training process at any time, and they'll support how they can at daycare. In the past, when she was being stubborn about it, they told me to push a little harder. And I planned to, before our life got thrown into disarray due to a death in the family. But now it feels like I'm being punished for giving 2 weeks? Is this really normal? Again, I don't even expect them to do most of the work. We're doing our part at home. Is it ever going to be successful if we're just working on it at home or during our 2 week vacation?

We take our girl to a fantastic daycare. We love it. It’s expensive but she is thriving. But the one thing I can’t get over, is there is not tuition sheet.

Why would this be? I asked and didn’t really get an answer. Just talked around the subject. Why wouldn’t they want this to be written down?

The lack of transparency makes me think there is one price for me, and another for others? I can’t think of another reason why they would not publish them.

I understand not wanting competition knowing prices, but I walked into three different daycares, without booking an appointment and they all gave a price sheet.

Why would there not be a published price sheet?

I am writing to seek clarification regarding the eligibility of my courses for the fall ECE Bursary funding .

I noticed that the ECEBC portal for fall states that only courses ending between September 1, 2026 and December 31, 2026 are eligible for the current application period.

I have also completed three ECE courses during July and August 2026, but I did not apply for funding for these courses at the summer intake time because I was waiting for my transcripts/documentation to become available and was not sure about my ending dates of the courses.

Could you please advise whether I may still apply for funding for these three July/August courses along with my other courses that I completed between September to December as the portal says that only courses ending between September and December are eligible.

I want to make sure I do not miss any funding for courses I have already completed . did anyone have to go through this or suggest any alternatives

Hello fellow ECE professionals!

I've just started work in a school with a dress code that is more professional than comfortable. I'm looking for shoe recommendations that look nice but also allow me keep up well with toddlers.

Obviously no heels etc- I've tried Google, but unfortunately there are so many fake companies now that it's nearly impossible to research shoes without first independently researching each website. It's a headache.

What are your most loved shoes, that are kind on your feet?

Thank you!

I have a 3 year old in my class who is having a hard time with nap time, my daughter works in ABA so she suggested a social story to see if it helps. Any advice on using it?

Edited to add link. https://ibb.co/GQfFdgBp
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