Our child was enrolled in the infant program from October 2025 until an abrupt withdrawal on May 4, 2026. I want to begin by acknowledging that her primary teacher, Miss Desiree, was wonderful. She was kind, attentive, and truly cared for our daughter. We are very grateful for the care she provided during our time there. Our experience with the director was very different. We first met Michelle in May 2025 during our tour. While she initially seemed pleasant, she appeared disorganized, with a cluttered office and a somewhat scattered presentation. During that tour, she specifically told us that the daycare uses an app to provide daily updates, including photos; in fact, I specifically asked if we would receive photos every day and she assured us we would. This was very important to us, as we had this feature at previous daycares with our eldest child and relied on it for peace of mind. However, after enrollment, we only received one photo. (We did receive updates as far as nap and feeding though). When we followed up, Michelle told us she does not require staff to send photos and stated she would never have guaranteed that. Had we known that upfront, we would not have chosen this center, again, this was a direct question I asked at the tour and was told differently. There were also multiple instances of disorganization. For example, I submitted required paperwork, only to be asked for it again weeks later. I resubmitted everything regardless but this raised early concerns about overall management.
While we had limited interaction with Michelle day-to-day, as our daughter was primarily with her classroom teachers, the most serious issue occurred in April. In April, Michelle sent a message about Teacher Appreciation Week stating she needed parent volunteers to cover classrooms from 12-3 PM so teachers could attend a luncheon. The message strongly implied that volunteers would be responsible for children during that time. This raised immediate concerns for us regarding safety, supervision, and background checks. I want to also state that I am not against appreciating the hard-working teachers, I myself have been an educator for 10 plus years and fully understand how hard teachers work. This is not about teacher appreciation week itself, but the safety protocol the director did not have in place for this event. I reached out to Michelle to ask reasonable questions about how volunteers would be selected, what safety protocols were in place, and whether they would be left alone with children. At the time, our daughter was 10 1/2 months old, so ensuring her safety was critical. Instead of addressing these concerns, Michelle responded by telling us that if we were uncomfortable, we could keep our child home and that this would be during our child's nap time. This response felt dismissive and unprofessional. Please see the screenshots for context. After following up again--especially noting concerns about required background checks and state regulations and how her tone was condescending and dismissive--we received a vague reply stating that tone can be misunderstood over messaging and that she would follow up later with more information after she has had time to think and would respond "hopefully by Monday" (she sent this Friday afternoon) However, she never did.
Instead, during the weekend, a message was sent stating the center would be closing early at 11:30am that same day the luncheon was to take place due to "unforeseen circumstances." The timing directly aligned with the previously planned volunteer coverage. This raised further concerns about planning, transparency, and whether appropriate procedures were being followed. So instead of the director, speaking to us about her proper safety procedures, and how she was going to handle the volunteers, our concerns were dismissed, and instead she decided to close her center, which not only felt again dismissive of our concerns, but had a disregard for the other families who rely on daycare to be open.
At that point, we no longer felt confident in the leadership or the safety practices of the center and made the decision to withdraw our daughter.
Overall, we found Michelle to be disorganized, dismissive, and unwilling to address legitimate safety concerns. It is unfortunate, as the classroom teachers themselves were kind and caring, but leadership sets the tone for the entire facility.
For reference, tuition was approximately $2,300 per month. For that level of cost, we expected professionalism, clear communication, and above all, a strong commitment to child safety.
We have since reported our concerns to the State of Maryland for further review and so that she can be properly investigated.
Based on our experience, I cannot recommend this facility under its current leadership. read more
