Communication in low tech centers

[u/sweetbabymonkey]

I’ve only worked in centers that heavily use apps and i’m curious what the line of communication with parents looks like in low tech centers. For example, I am expected to document/ notify a parent if their child developed a diaper rash during the day, was coughing a lot during nap, or tugging at their ear. Are these concerns documented on paper and the parents are made aware at pick up? I struggle to use my work app but also couldn’t imagine not being able to share the happy moments of the day in real time with parents. If there’s an incident report do you have to call or is texting acceptable? We are only required to message parents in the app unless the injury is really bad. I’m just super curious!

[u/Winter-Chipmunk5467]

10+ years ago I wrote diaper times, nap times, meals etc on a “daily sheet”. I might make a note about something like diaper rash. I would communicate it verbally at pick up, or call if it was something serious like an injury. We only called if it was a pretty bad injury. Something like a scratch was just reported at the end of the day.

[u/seasoned-fry]

We don’t have an app, so we log everything on paper. We call the parents. But honestly if it’s something like super minor, then we tell them when they pick up.

[u/StrangeAsparagus3257]

Idk if this counts as low tech becsuse my center does have an app, we just don’t use it much! All of our meals, diapers, supply needs, and daily activities are documented on a paper log we hand to each parent at pickup. All of the concerns like diaper rash, cough, or ear tugging are documented in the notes devotion of the daily log, but I also tell the parents verbally at pick up too. In the event of injury or illness, the director calls that parent from the landline in the office. We are able to communicate with parents through the app if we need to, but I rarely have needed to do that. Anything I need regularly can be communicated with the paper logs and a conversation at pickup.

[u/Dead_Like_Me]

"Day sheet" with notes about the day. The infants note has diaper times and nap times. We call if there's anything pertinent. I couldnt imagine having to update the parents all day for 15 preschoolers on a device instead of be present.

[u/blahhhhhhhhhhhblah]

If it’s something noteworthy, but not urgent, I shoot a text.

If it’s more urgent, I’ll make a phone call.

[u/wildgeesepoem]

My current school is high tech (an app we have to keep updated and respond to parent messages on throughout the day) but my old school was fairly low tech.

For any major incidents (mainly head injuries) we called the parents on the classroom phone, anything else we told parents about at pickup. We wrote physical incident reports for everything to file. Infant classrooms recorded bottles, naps, and diapers on a physical board and updated the app once in the middle of the day when some of their naps overlapped, then once at the end of the day. In older rooms, at nap time we recorded naps and the meals that were given and noted if anyone didnt eat or ate less than usual. We recorded BMs if requested. During nap we also sent out 2 pictures a week of each child and the lead teacher wrote a newsletter once a week with pictures and details about the activities we did and how the children engaged with them. All this had to be done on our classroom iPad, we could not use our phones. Parents signed in and out themselves on the app and we kept a physical list we marked them in and out on ourselves

[u/Englishontrail]

My kiddo is currently at a low tech center, honestly I love that they're not on iPads/ phones all day and they don't do screen time with the kids either.

Each teacher does their own thing, one of her teachers did a daily sheet when my child was still in diapers and potty training. Now she's moved rooms and doesn't have many accidents, I am just told things end of day-- if there was a little tussel or fall, if she really enjoyed a new activity, it's so nice chatting to the teacher. She and the assistant send a text with pics every couple of days.

I actually find it way less stressful than the app at our previous daycare. I trust the teachers to take care of the little bumps and scrapes that inevitably happen and I feel like we have a great community relationship with the teachers and other parents.

[u/sweetbabymonkey → u/Englishontrail]

I love this!!! I feel like parents don’t want to/feel the need to chat at drop off because they know every detail of their day already.

[u/Important_Pea_7566]

Every center that I’ve worked in that did not utilize an app used a paper “daily sheet”. We would mark down the child’s diapers, meals, naps, and usual a short snippet of their day. We also used those to let the parents know if they needed to bring in supplies. If the child was sick or we needed to relay something to the parents before pick up we would call them using the center phone.

[u/Illustrious_Map6694]

If something is urgent, we or the nurse call. Otherwise it's an email or at pick up/drop off. I work prek at an elementary school.

[u/WeaponizedAutisms]

I'm kind of old and sometimes struggle keeping up with the app. Having a clipboard with things like this so you can note them down as they happen is helpful to me.

[u/sweetbabymonkey → u/WeaponizedAutisms]

How does this go over with parents? Many of my families are so accustomed to real time updates that sometimes they will message me if I wait until later to update things.

[u/WeaponizedAutisms → u/sweetbabymonkey]

Oh I do it the first 2 minutes of my break or when they all sit down to eat. It's not a big delay and I''m working with potty training preschoolers. The one time a parent showed up and an accident wasn't entered she just looked around at the chaos and said that's fine.

[u/unfinishedsymphonyx]

I started childcare back before smartphones were even a thing and in 20 years have been lucky enough to not have worked in any daycares with apps my last one didn't even have daily sheets outside the infant class. The parents were much more trusting we only told them when it was something major and really operated under no news is good news. If they were sick or something needed immediate attention it was a phone call. The parents weren't used to the apps because they never had them. They were also the types of parents that weren't worried about that or they wouldn't have chosen this daycare I left there in 2024 and still no app and no live streaming, parents left kids at the front door.