Russell Isabella, PhD
Department of Family and Consumer Studies
University of Utah

On the short list of important factors in choosing daycare for your child is staff turnover, or the frequency with which caregivers leave their jobs and therefore must be replaced. Ideally, parents find a daycare setting for their child in which at least some caregivers have been working for some time, and few if any care providers leave in any given year. But why does this matter?

Perhaps most important for young children is the consistency of their daily experience. Whether at home or in daycare, young children function best when they feel comfortable in their surroundings, trust those who are caring for them, believe they have some control over the events in their lives, and can count on the predictability of daily routines. All of these are more likely when a child is cared for by the same person or persons for extended periods of time.

Any child entering a daycare setting must adjust to the many changes the daycare experience will bring with it: new and different surroundings, a new and unfamiliar person (or persons) caring for them, sharing of the daycare environment with a number of other children who are not familiar, new expectations placed upon the child (whatever daycare providers expect from the children in their care, it almost certainly will be different in some ways from what the child's parents expect), and for many children, the new and different experience of being separated from parents for prolonged periods. This represents a substantial series of challenges for the young child, and his/her interactions and relationships with the new caregiver(s) will be absolutely critical to the child's mastery of these challenges. The caregiver will become the child's source of trust and safety in the new and demanding setting, and thus will play a very important role in contributing to the child's growth and development in this setting. Put another way, only with the caregiver's continuing love, support, and encouragement can the child thrive in the daycare setting.

It is only when one begins to understand the magnitude of the importance of the child-caregiver relationship in fostering the child's adjustment to and functioning within the daycare setting that one can begin to recognize the problems associated with staff turnover. When a child loses their caregiver, they lose the source of much that they had come to depend upon in the daycare setting. Granted, if the child has been in this setting for several months at the time the caregiver leaves, the child's familiarity with the setting will help them through the change of caregivers. However, each time such a relationship is severed, the child's overall sense of trust, and their belief in the predictability of their world, will be affected. Furthermore, the more frequently such events occur, the more likely the child's trust and confidence in his or her care arrangement will be damaged to a point that is unhealthy for the child.

Note from TLC Staff Member:

I have to agree that staff turnover is not a good thing, and we all wish that it could be stopped.  But with the continuing demands for expensive training, yet pay that is usually just pennies above minimum wage, it is difficult to keep good help in a child care center.  Though the teachers love their jobs, some times they just can't afford to do them any more.  I know that many providers around the nation are lobbying for federally subsidized wages for the people who are willing to get the education and stick with the field of child care.  Lets pray that someday it will happen!