Woonsocket Head Start/Bourdon Blvd

My son attended for two years, it was a great convenience to have within the community. The teachers from last year (2016-2017 semester) watched both my son and daughter before she transitioned to kindergarten. There was quite a bit of turn over in teachers from last year until now. There is only one classroom in the building unfortunately so my siblings were put in the same one. This resulted to be counterproductive for them personally. This year a fellow parent went out of their way to inform me that at pick up time he witnessed my child being mistreated at school by a teacher and that two other parents witnessed this as well. He Was very upset when her entered and confronted the staff but was simply told that they were trained to handle the situation. I was told he witnessed my son being dragged and held by the wrist as well as the teacher grabbing his face. My son later confirmed that the teacher held his face and that she picked him up off his cot by his arm “because i didn’t want to wake up.” I called dcyf but they were unfortunately no help and did not chose to investigate as they were told by the Headstart that they would handle the issue and because admitirlo had no bruises/marks. I was contacted by the director of the Headstart program about the matter. We attempted to find a resolution, my hope was to work with their behavioral specialist they were soon to hire so that if my son did have an outburst That they felt posed a “risk”, There would be no need physically restrained him. I was explained that that was the reason for the phsyical contact and that was what they were trained to do. I did not agree with this method, I had had an issue before with my daughter coming home claiming very specifically that her bother had been hit over the head with a marker by the director of the Bourdon center for not wanting to nap. During all of the turn over with teachers Miss Claudia often greeted me at the end of the day by herself with them. She would rush to put her coat on and shut the lights before I could gather my sons things. I had also tried to have someone look into this after meeting with her personally but nothing came of it. Both issues I was assured that I was some big misunderstanding. Since then I had been very involved with asking questions and monitoring my son’s progress. I was often worried and felt like I had to stay on top of things. With this 2nd incident My intent was to possibly resolve the problem within a group meeting where we could find an alternative method for my 4 yr old whenever he got upset. This was considered because My son had made significant progress in other areas since the arrival of Miss Kelly & Miss Lydia so the decision to remove him was very conflicting for me. I was told by his IEP speech therapy instructor that my son did not need a behavioral iep because he did not qualify and that he was too bright for the pre k program at Polthier and he would not fit in because those are severe cases that he does not compare to. It was troubling to hear that he was occasionally “dangerous to himself and or others” but no where near qualifying for ppl who might actually be trained for the levels of behavioral issues I’m being told he “sometimes” has. I figured you don’t need to restrain a sometimes moody kid to THAT extent and if so then you should be able to find other simpler methods on those rare occasions like redirection, etc. I was in the process of inquiring about other possible childcare programs to better suit him but ultimately he was removed from the program. The family worker was a great assistance to my entire family in those two years and for her services I am very greatful, for that I give 2 stars. Unfortunately there were many questions left unanswered and issues left unresolved as if everything had been swept under a rug. Therefore my son is the one who took the loss. A very upsetting experience for him and I.