My daughter started attending Step Ahead towards the end of August 2021 (She had just turned 2 in July). Within a week, they asked First Steps to come evaluate her for therapies since she was not talking or understanding direction - which was a blessing as First Steps has been the best thing for her. She began receiving therapy services at daycare from First Steps in September 2021. In October 2021, my daughter was diagnosed with autism by her neurologist. I gave the diagnosis letter to her teachers the next day she attended. I received a phone call from one of the directors at noon that same day stating that I needed to find another facility for Evangeline because she stresses her teachers out. I immediately called her therapists crying because not only did I just find out that my daughter was on the spectrum, but she was already being treated poorly because of it. Her therapists gave me a resource to send to the daycare that could offer additional support to not only Evangeline, but other children in the facility. I sent this information via e-mail to the director and called back to notify them of it. No response about the e-mail I sent and the resource was not used to my knowledge. A couple days later, the other director called me to back-pedal for the first director and ended up just repeating/agreeing with what was said Monday. More stress added onto me that I did not need. Mind you - my daughter is very sweet. She is not aggressive; she does not harm others or herself. She is non-verbal and throws tantrums (like most toddlers) when she can't understand or communicate her needs. Since the daycare could not legally kick her out, I did not remove her from their care. Since this initial discussion with the two directors, any time I had to call them about something, they would bring up her needing to go somewhere else. I started looking around for daycares that could support ASD children but they all had long waiting lists that would take months to consider her. Fast forward to the end of Spring 2022 - Step Ahead is sending home summer activity permission slips and sending out mass messages asking parents to fill them out so children can participate. We did not receive one so I messaged them about it. They called me and once again stated she was better going somewhere else. She would be turning 3 in July and they did not know which 3 year old group they would place her with because both groups are in rooms without doors. They were worried that she would wander out of the area because of this (as would most 3 year olds?). I was then told to be prepared for it to not work out. This caused me extreme grief and I decided when she turned 3, that I would have to remove her from their facility until she started Pre-school in August.
Long story short - while this facility is great for neuro-typical children, it is a terrible facility for neuro-diverse children. The lack of communication regarding their inability to care for her until after her diagnosis is discriminatory and the fact that I was continuously asked to find her somewhere else to go has caused me a great deal of unnecessary stress.
I will say - two of her teachers have been a saving grace for us. My daughter ADORES Ms. Taylor and Ms. DeeDee. We probably wouldn't have lasted as long as we did if they were not there. But I think if this facility plans on continuing services, they should provide teachers training to support children with needs. read more
