I am going to start from the very beginning, I spoke to Julie regarding my son's needs, he is 3 years old and in the spectrum, but he is level 2 so he doesn't really have special needs, the only additional thing he needs is getting picked up at their curbside after being dropped off by his school bus twice a day, my son goes to the head start program of Moreno Valley School District so he gets dropped off at noon twice a week.
The other thing that he need is getting ABA therapy done at their place which doesn't really require any special assistance from them because the therapist come there to conduct the session and they do not need to do anything aside from letting the therapist come.
After giving this information, she decided to charge us more than what is supposed to be his tuition for his age, just because he's in the spectrum, we had to pay $100 more a month. Because we need daycare as soon as possible I agreed without knowing that this is a violation against California Civil Rights Section 54 and ADA. I honestly didn't care at first because I dont mind paying more if my son is really going to receive "special treatment or really in good hands.
After sending my son at their care for only a month, more and more issues and concerns are arising. My son was sent home twice due to being "short staffed" without any advance notice. He was also sent home for having a runny nose and was told that they will not accept him until this is gone which I understood and accepted, mind you, they sent him home after he was dropped off by his school bus which means the school district was fine with his symptoms. We decided to find another daycare right after this and gave Julie the 3 week notice for pulling out our son from their care. I explained everything to her regarding my son's runny nose, he has allergies, other parents know that allergy medicines does not take away all their symptoms. She tried to convince me to stay and that she will accomodate my son's allergy symptoms as long as we give him allergy medicine and get clearance from his doctor.
I wasn't convince and told her that we already found another day care. The week after I gave her the notice, my son's allergies got worse. He was already sent home on a Monday due to being short staff again, the next day he was dropped off by his school bus at noon and after picking him up in the afternoon they messaged me to say that my son may have pink eye due to having runny nose, teary and crusty eyes. I explained to Julie again that he has allergies and he also had blocked tear duct that is causing the discharge and teary eyes and it's worse on allergy season, I provided medical records that shows his diagnosis, he has allergic conjunctivitis which clearly states that symptoms are the same as having a pink eye and it's not contagious but Julie didn't accepted this, she continue to tell us that my son has pink eye and doesn't believe what his medical records is stating. She told us that she needs clearance from his pediatrician so we agreed, we told her that we're going to bring my son in the morning to his dr to get that clearance and then again, Julie changed her mind, she said my son's symptoms has to go away and she will not accept him even with clearance from the doctor.
This was the deciding point for me, my son's ABA therapists have nothing but good things to say about the assistants that she have, they go there 3 hours for 3 days to conduct his session, though they told me that my son is always alone and separated from other kids just because he has "special needs". I am aware of this when I enrolled him but Julie assured me that he will have time to socialize with other kids which only happens after his ABA therapist brought him to the section where all the other kids his age are playing.
Our attorney recommended to file an official complaint so we did. I wasn't aware, this experience was definitely a violation of California's Civil Act Section 54 through 55.2 and ADA Section 504.
So for parents who have kids that has "special needs" beware of this daycare. read more