If I could give less stars, I would ...
Our infant TRIPLET girls attended First Steps since Sept '23 - Feb '24. The infant room has a ratio of 3 childcare providers to 1 infant, most of the time. Within a couple of months, 2/3 of the ladies in the girl's room were either exited or resigned. For about a month, they had to rotate people from the toddler and preschool rooms. One time at drop off, there was only 1 childcare worker in the room and there were 7 infants! My wife had to stay until someone else showed up over 20 minutes later. Finally, they hired 2 new ladies who are both FABULOUS. In February, we found out one of them is also leaving .... which has caused them to close the infant room for good - with 1 week's notice. We had a meeting with Badri, the owner, the following week and he told us "he wasn't able to give more notice" and when we pressed him for additional information, he said he "didn't want to discuss anything further".
The leadership at this facility is questionable at best.The director, Marissa and the owner, Badri do not care about parent's opinions, wishes or feelings for that matter. On MULTIPLE occasions, our girls were sent home for having diaper rashes, runny noses and 'temperatures' that were taken after waking up from a nap or from crying and being too hot. I was told point blank that one of the centre's daycare providers in the infant room told Marissa that one of my daughter's was fine to stay and there was nothing wrong with her, but Marissa told them to message me and send her home because her mucus was "yellow". We brought her to the doctor and he told us that whoever said that is incompetent and should not be working with children if this is what she sends them home for. I called to discuss it and was told that Marissa brought the phone to someone else to answer because she didn't want to speak to me.
We had the ministry of education conduct an investigation, along with other families who complained, and found out that they have been investigated more than 6 times in 2023 alone + have had numerous deficiencies and violations each time - in December they had over 10 in 1 visit. These included things like not storing hazardous materials in a safe place away from children, not having the right ratio of caregivers to children, not having the appropriate number of certified/ qualified care givers, not providing parents with accident reports, and not keeping the facility clean. In my opinion, these are very serious violations.
We've also learned that the centre has not had heat since September 2023 and the children and staff are often so cold that they need to be wrapped in blankets to get warm. We were told by family and friends that it was normal for children to get sick at daycare, but now we know why it has been so often.
We often speak with other parents in the infant room and they have very similar complaints and have even spoken to Badri and had the same experience. It is clear that leadership at this facility only cares about the financial side of things. Most of the actual childcare workers are wonderful, but they leave because of how they are treated by Marissa. It's just sad that the people in charge are the absolute opposite.
This was the only facility we could find who would accept all 3 of our girls at the same time (it's hard enough to get 1 spot in Burlington), so we are grateful they did that, but we were so happy to get out of there as soon as we did. They don't appreciate their workers, parents or children. They're in it for the money and know that if a child leaves, they have a line-up out the door who will replace them. read more
