The prevalence of early childhood expulsion has been documented for close to two decades, with known disparities for children of color, children with disabilities, and children who have experienced trauma. While empirical data on the lasting impact of early expulsion events continues to emerge, there has been little research focused explicitly on how expulsion impacts caregivers (inclusive of any adult that sees themselves in a primary caretaker role for a young child that had experienced expulsion, such as mothers, fathers, grandparents, and foster parents). The purpose of this research study was to examine the experiences of caregivers of young children who experienced expulsion from an early childhood setting. We used a semi-structured interview to capture caregivers’ experiences pre and post expulsion (N = 26). We used a multi-step, collaborative analysis process to analyze the interview data using thematic and constant comparative methods. Initially, most caregivers reported a positive association with their children’s early education setting. However, despite a positive start, relationships with staff deteriorated, and eventually their children were expelled. In most incidents, caregivers described feeling caught off guard by these expulsions, with lasting negative impact for their family. Implications for research and policy are discussed.

近二十年来，幼儿期被驱逐现象普遍存在，有色人种儿童、残疾儿童和经历过创伤的儿童之间存在差异。虽然关于早期驱逐事件持久影响的经验数据不断出现，但很少有研究明确关注驱逐如何影响照顾者（包括任何认为自己是经历过驱逐的幼儿的主要看护者角色的成年人，例如作为母亲、父亲、祖父母和养父母）。这项研究的目的是调查那些经历过幼儿教育的幼儿的照顾者的经历。我们采用半结构化访谈来捕捉看护者被驱逐前后的经历 ( N = 26)。我们采用多步骤协作分析流程，利用主题和持续比较方法来分析访谈数据。最初，大多数看护者报告称其与孩子的早期教育环境存在正相关。然而，尽管开局良好，但与工作人员的关系恶化，最终他们的孩子被开除。在大多数事件中，看护者表示，这些驱逐令他们感到措手不及，这给他们的家庭带来了持久的负面影响。讨论了对研究和政策的影响。