I wouldn't recommend this daycare center to my worst enemy.
To start off, I moved my son from a small home daycare who was more of a babysitter to Creative Child so he could become more familiar with a structured environment, do more activities, etc. From the start the center seemed good, although expensive. We met his teacher Melissa who didn't come across as the most pleasant person in the world, first impression wasn't great, but I brushed that off to maybe she isn't a morning person.
4-5 weeks into my son's part time care at the center, a notebook was placed in his cubby with no context as to what would be in the notebook. My husband thought this was going to be a report of how my son's days are going as a new student and was excited to read it. We were very wrong. The first entry in this book explained all of the "weird" behaviors my son has, and the demeanor it was written in seemed more annoyed than concerned. They wrote "he makes sounds that make no sense" and told me he couldn't wash his hands or throw away trash like the other children. Keep in mind - my son wasn't really taught how to do those things at the other daycare or at home yet. This was all new to him.
As a mother of a two-year-old boy who's never been in a daycare environment such as this one, I was immediately upset and confronted his teacher Melissa who said to me "these are autism behaviors." In my personal experience, having worked in daycare over 10 years myself, I would have never said that to a parent - my son is too young to come to any kind of conclusion such as autism, and certainly a daycare teacher does not have the proper authority to diagnose such a thing.
The way this notebook was presented was completely wrong. The lack of communication at this center is truly disappointing. No one at this center communicates to you unless it's written in a book, and if you forget that book at home they threaten disciplinary action. (I have emails to prove this if anyone is interested).
Fast forward to recently: I am aware my son has a speech delay - he is in EI and has only had three speech therapy appointments thus far. He improves and says more words daily, however, as he is a speech delayed child, he often gets frustrated when he cannot get his words out and will slap himself as a way to get his frustration out and get attention. He doesn't slap hard, but when he does this he is easily de-escalated if one gets down to his level, asks if he needs help and shows him how to do nice hands.
This is not how the daycare handles my son when he gets frustrated. Instead they ignore him, or yell at him, and the behavior increases because my son is not getting the attention he so obviously is looking for. They do not have any patience for a child who isn't able to fully communicate and they don't follow EI's instructions on how to get him to make choices, etc.
Now this is concerning behavior, sure - however my son is a well-mannered child, he is not a danger to anyone nor himself, and he is easily redirected if the time is taken to do so. Creative Child asked us to come in for a meeting about "transitioning into pre-k" which really was a meeting about them kicking our son out. They said "unless a magic wand is swung and he improves, we do not have the time to give him the attention he needs." I pay almost $1,000 a month for my son to attend a school who doesn't have time to give him a couple moments of attention when he needs it?
Usually my son is very happy to go to daycare in the morning. He never cries when I bring him to his classroom until the last week where he has cried at the door and refused to walk inside every morning. It's a telling sign that he isn't being treated the way he should be, and he is scared. One Friday, before all of this came up about them expelling my son, I had to pick him up because he was sick - I walked in his classroom while his teacher was yelling at him to sit down. I brushed this off and I'm realizing now I shouldn't have.
My once happy to be at daycare every day child has become scared to even walk into his classroom. There's obvious mistreatment and possible physical abuse at this center.
This is a disgusting excuse for a daycare. I truly hope no one else is treated the way they have treated us.
UPDATE:
Weeks after my child is still scared to even drive in the direction of this daycare. He cries, and says "no no no mommy". read more