Web cams make day care bearable.

About 400 U.S. centers now offer parents a chance to check on their child whenever they please.

By ABIGAIL LEICHMAN
Knight Ridder Newspapers
1/29/06

HACKENSACK, N.J. - Liz Paskas was sad about putting her toddler, Amaya, in day care last fall.

"I have to work, and I hate to spend time away from her," she said.

So when she was looking for a facility, she chose Rainbow Academy, a network of centers with a branch in Paskas' hometown of Rutherford, N.J.

What clinched the deal was ParentView, a Web camera that allows those with passwords to log on from any computer and take a peek at what's happening in school. About 400 U.S. day care centers have Web cams in place, said John Lewison, general manager of WatchMeGrow, a company that specializes in child care viewing systems.

'The fact that I can watch her any time is such a great thing," said Paskas. "Any part of her childhood that I miss is a big deal. Even if I'm just watching her interacting with other children or eating on her own, I get so excited I call my co-workers to come and see."

Rainbow installed its first system in 1998 and now has Parent-View in all nine centers.

"We realize how hard it is for a parent to put their child in day care," said CEO Guy Falzarano. "This is one of the ways we try to relieve that anxiety."

When Divina Alorro opened Sweet Peas Learning Center in Bergenfield, N.J., in April 2004, her husband urged her to let him install a Web cam in each room.

He reasoned that not only would parents like the service, but it also would allow Alorro to supervise the staff even when she was sitting in her office.

"We wanted a way to make sure that (child abuse) didn't happen here," said Alorro.

She added that staff members do not mind knowing they can be watched at any given time.

"New teachers may feel a little self-conscious at first, but if they're doing the right thing, they quickly forget about the cameras," Alorro said.

Dina Duffy, co-director at Rainbow, said her teachers only remember about the cameras when a parent calls to ask them to adjust the view a bit. They even may wave if they know they're on camera.

Aside from occasional angle adjustments, there's little maintenance required.

"We have an occasional computer glitch that can be fixed within minutes, usually through my office computer," said Duffy, "but we do have a tech I can call to make adjustments if necessary."

"I've had parents say, 'I won't go to such-and-such center, even if they're a good provider, because they don't have a way for me to view my child,'" said Falzarano.

Once in a while, parents checking in on their children will call the center and reprimand their children for an observed behavior, such as not cooperating or sharing.

But Alorro said she believes grandparents take a virtual peek at the kids even more often than parents do.

"We have grandparents from as far away as Israel looking at their grandchildren," she said. "It gives them a wonderful opportunity to watch the children play and grow"