Stories of abuse will make any parent afraid if they have children in day care facilities. But Jason Colgan said he has found a way to use computers and the Internet to calm parents’ nerves and run a more successful day care center.
At A Safer Start Child University in Cranston, Web cameras let parents watch their kids while they play and interact with staff and other children. The day care center is the first child care facility in Rhode Island to offer parents the ability to view their children by using Web cameras.
The new preschool and day care is wired with Web cameras, motion detectors, and swipe access cards to allow parents to watch their child from home, work, travel or anywhere else that has an Internet connection. By accessing a secure Web site and entering a protected user name and password, a parent is able to watch his or her child and the activities of the caregivers via wall-mounted cameras installed throughout the day care center.
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Colgan, who launched A Safer Start last month, said he decided to open a wired day care center to help ease parents’ concerns over kidnappings, child safety, and other unknowns lurking behind the doors of today’s day cares. The technology is especially useful for calming the nerves of new parents leaving their child at day care for the first time.
“The cameras ease separation anxiety,” said Colgan. “The parents have the ability to check in and see their [child’s] face, see they’re healthy and happy. All they have to do is type in a user name and password, boom.”
The technology provides live streaming video with high refresh rates, so that the image is not choppy. After logging on to a secure Web site, the viewer can elect to view a four-way split screen, zero in on each of the screens, or key a rotation feature to each screen in succession.
Colgan, who has degrees in management and computer information systems and worked with the Revere Group as a consultant before going into the child care business, developed all of the hardware and programmed all of the software. The entire system is proprietary, and there is no third-party involved as a Web host.
The elimination of outside parties helps ensure the privacy of children, parents and day care staff, said Colgan. Passwords access the Web site need to be updated every two weeks, and Colgan said he monitors the activity on the system, watching for conflicting sign-ins that might suggest that outsiders have gained access. He said he would terminate the enrollment of children whose parents allow others access to the private Web site.
Admittedly, Colgan said knowing that your every move could be watched takes some getting used to. But Colgan said the children are blissfully oblivious of the cameras. And as far as the staff is concerned, well, Big Brother might be a positive influence.
“In opening A Safer Start and talking to a lot of people, we’ve heard some of the worst horror stories about other day care centers – severe punishments, things not looked after, parents telling us that the first point of contact was a child when they knocked on the door. We’ve heard about 15 kids left alone in a room for hours,” said Colgan “So this technology can really only have a positive effect on the staff. They know they will be monitored by parents throughout the day, but it’s not a problem because the staff are confident in their abilities and dedicated to the children under their supervision.”
Operating out of a homey rented house on Woodbine Street in Cranston, A Safer Start has six employees and is licensed for 30 children, ages two through five. Colgan said he is hoping to expand the business into multiple locations, and is talking to investors.
The concern about safety does not take a back seat to the developmental and educational experience of the children, said Colgan. Inside the day care center are several learning stations for work and play with math, science, reading, arts and crafts, puzzles and blocks, music and games.
Mia Lombardi said being able to log on to a Web site and watch her daughter play with her peers makes A Safer Start a superior day care center.
“I absolutely love it, I’m actually looking at her on the computer right now,” said Lombardi, mother of 3-year-old Jodiana. “Before we picked A Safer Start I went to five or six different preschools and interviewed the directors, and I saw so many things I didn’t like – kids getting no individual attention, kids left in front of TVs – things that are not within my moral value system.” The technology offers another valuable service by allowing Lombardi to see how Jodiana relates to other people when she doesn’t think Mom is watching.
Lombardi isn’t bothered by the prospect of other people watching her daughter as well – perhaps even strangers, if there were a breach in security.
“My daughter is a wonderful girl, and she doesn’t need to live in a bubble. People can see her play if they want to. They don’t have cameras in any inappropriate places,” she said.
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