As a former parent of a child who was enrolled at this school, I wanted to write my review based on…read morefacts and what I observed at the school during that time. There were good things about this school but over the last several months, something at the school has changed. These are my views and based on knowledgeable firsthand facts.
Lack of Proper Oversight - The school has been hit by licensing several times over the last 6 months (details and sign up of alerts can be found here https://www.ccld.dss.ca.gov/carefacilitysearch/FacDetail/013421352). The staff will constantly turn their backs, be on their phone, stand in areas that block views, and leave children unattended constantly. For example, I picked up my son in late March (5ish) and the number of kids was 18 for one teacher, all different ages playing outside on the playground. Also, I dropped off my son last week (8:20 am), and noticed the number of kids was 30+ but only two teachers were outside (Ratio is supposed to be 12-1). I have noticed a constant repetitive pattern, and it looks like other parents have communicated these same issues to licensing.
Lack of Proper Teaching - During afternoon nap time, I signed my son up for additional academic learning programs that were offered. This program, Early Explorers, was designed to provide additional education to kids that were dropping their naps. It wasn't a free choice and required parents to pay extra. Over the last six months, the program went from fun academic learning to additional free play outside. During their free play outside, nothing academic or educational was provided, it was only more play outside on the playground. When questioned about why I was paying for a program that was advertised as additional learning opportunities, an excuse about lunch breaks was communicated to me.
Lack of Proper Intervention / Regulation - During my time there, multiple reports were communicated to me about my son's incidents. During these incidents it was made clear that teachers were not properly trained in the right child development techniques and were constantly intervening when situations escalated to the highest levels. For example, my son had several incident reports for physical violence, when questioned about the lead up to the situation, it was clear that my son communicated he needed another child to respect his space. The teacher watched my son communicate multiple times that my son needed space, intervening after things escalated physically between the two children. During another incident, I questioned the teacher asking things like "can you tell me more about when and how you stepped in?" or "Can you provide me with facts leading up to the situation?", which caused teachers to not provide adequate details about the situation.
Lack of Communication to parents by the Owner and Leadership - A situation came up last year where parents were passing around a picture of my son being restrained by a teacher. That picture was provided to me six months later when another parent asked about the situation, thinking I knew about it. Nothing was communicated to me by leadership or the owner until I comforted them about it. When asked why this wasn't brought to my attention, the excuse "an internal investigation happened" was used. Then questioned again on why I wasn't made aware of this, the comments "well the child's parents were notified", I was the parent of the child, and it was clear Leadership was trying to keep it from us.