I want to preface this review by saying that Childcare Network has some legitimately good people on staff, who do the best with what they have, and in no way do I want this review to be a reflection on them.
Secondly, if you send your child here and have an issue, the highest person I've been able to reach is Brandi Rutledge, their regional manager. Her email is brutledge@childcarenetwork.com. I encourage you to reach out and petition her to have Childcare Network pay their employees what they're worth.
Now that that's out of the way, let's get to the "fun" stuff. For starters, you should know that "Childcare Network" is the operational name for "Child Development Schools" which is owned by Glencoe Capital, a private equity firm, (oh and by the way, their direct phone number is 312.795.6300 - please call them and make your voice heard). That's right, you can be sure that "Childcare Network" the company will never be putting the needs of your child, you, or their own staff first, because, THEY ARE OWNED BY AN INVESTMENT FIRM, and their bottom line will always come first. I know this because I tried to find out who their CEO is, but they don't have one - they report to Glencoe. This is a large company owned by the firm, and it is truly a "Network" as they own 160 daycare centers across the southeast United States. They pay their employees pennies on the dollar compared to other daycare centers (employees give them a "2 out of 5" on Indeed.com under the category of compensation), terminate their employees for dubious reasons, and pack classrooms full of kids.
Now that you know this, let me explain how this will translate to your experience.
My child didn't start at this location. He started at the Childcare Network on Raymond Diehl road, which is HALF the distance to my house from this center on Park Blvd. However, they began having coverage problems at Raymond Diehl. Legally, a childcare center can only have so many children per teacher in each class. Well Childcare Network pushes that number to its absolute limits routinely. What does that mean? My child started to get denied at the front door. "Sorry, we're full, we'll give you a refund for the day, but we won't be able to take him today" is a sentence you will routinely hear if you send your child to Childcare Network. So what happened? This situation got so bad that the ENTIRE LOCATION closed down permanently.
So for the past several months, we've now been sending him to this center, on Park Blvd, where all the children at the other center were relocated. This center is larger and theoretically, wouldn't have these same issues, right? WRONG. My child has been turned away at the door, has had to wait in the morning for an extra teacher to arrive to the school before he could be let in (several other parents were also waiting), and today, instead of closing at 6pm, their usual time, my wife and I were informed they will be closing at 2pm due to lack of staff, and we have to leave our jobs and pick him up early. Bottom line: YOU WILL NOT GET RELIABLE CHILDCARE HERE.
My child likes this new center better, because there are more kids his age, and he's starting VPK in four months at a different facility. If not for those two factors, I would have unenrolled him from this place with a quickness, but my wife and I don't want to disrupt his experience and force him to make all new friends, when he'll have to do that anyway in a few months.
To put a cap on this, "Childcare Network" aka Child Development Schools is a shining example of why childcare DOES NOT WORK as a for-profit venture. If you don't pay your employees adequately for their work, they won't show up, and who can blame them? The unfortunate part is WHEN they don't show up, your and your child's lives will be disrupted. I thought we would have learned our lessons after COVID, to pay our essential workers fairly, but it seems not - as a society, we continue to bow to the almighty dollar, and the owners of Glencoe Capital/Childcare Network are right up at the very front of the financial prayer circle. read more