ste_noni

I'm assuming the boy is Ellie's age - i.e. just at the beginning of knowing that what he's doing is wrong. I think my kids' daycare would be really pro-active about this, based on what I've seen with 2 year olds. They have required incident reports for physical violence between kids, and a written report goes to both parents (though I'm not sure to what extent shoving would be covered - mostly it seems to be if skin is broken, or other big boo-boos). The "wild boy" in Casper's old class was the only kid who ever had incident reports written on him, and the teachers worked really closely with him to keep him under control (maybe partly because it's a pain in the ass to do paperwork!) They paid extra attention to him (because acting out is often a result of not enough attention - gos knows I know this from home!), made sure he always got to play outside if only half the class was going outside (a lot of his problem was abundant physical energy), and if necessary made him sit in a chair. I am sure there are federal laws against physical discipline of kids in day care, but I know they can be put in time out type situations - Casper has been (there was a recent shovel incident). Speak up. Ellie can't defend herself against this yet, and you need to be the one to make sure she is defended. And it will help the other kid, too, to learn control and appropriate behavior.