After 2 years at the school and 2 children enrolled, we ultimately withdrew both of our children because we no longer felt confident in the school management's ability to provide a safe, stable, and well-managed environment.
The root cause of nearly every concern we experienced was the same: poor leadership and management by the owners.
During our time at the school, we experienced:
* Every single teacher except one since the school started 2 years ago has left.
* ~6 new lead teachers across our two children's classrooms since October 2025 alone. Not counting all the one offs they brought in and out that lasted only days / weeks.
* 3 principals in two years, with the school still lacking permanent leadership.
* Frequent classroom shuffling for students and teachers, and staffing changes to maintain ratios to the point where our kids would sometimes have lunch in one room, sleep in another.
* Repeated injuries and biting incidents in understaffed classrooms. After one incident involving our child, we were told that "at least it didn't break the skin."
* Multiple illness outbreaks, reports that classrooms went without soap for an extended period, prolonged HVAC issues, and rodent activity.
* A consistent lack of transparency. Parents often learned about significant issues only after repeated questioning, conversations with teachers, violations posted to the DSS website, and after problems had already escalated.
* A recurring disconnect between what teachers reported and what management communicated. Teachers frequently shared concerns about staffing and classroom support, while management often claimed they were unaware of the same issues. Consistently the management blamed teachers, and refused to take accountability.
* Repeated billing discrepancies and incorrectly charged fees that required us to carefully review statements and request corrections.
The school's licensing reports ultimately confirmed many of the concerns parents had been raising. Recent inspections cite repeat violations and systemic deficiencies involving background checks, staff qualifications, CPR requirements, classroom supervision, medication administration, and safety procedures. Particularly alarming was a finding that an employee had worked at the school for 19 months without a completed criminal background check, along with findings that staff lacking required documentation were sometimes working alone with children.
Most of the teachers genuinely cared about the children and worked hard under difficult circumstances. Our concerns are not with them. Often the lack of management support drove them to leave.
Our concerns are with the owners. These are not first-time childcare operators. They know what stable staffing, strong compliance, transparent communication, and adequate classroom support should look like. Yet many of the same concerns persisted despite repeated feedback from families and staff. What was most frustrating was not that problems existed, but that meaningful action often seemed to occur only after repeated parent complaints or licensing involvement. It felt like business and operational considerations were being prioritized over investing in the staffing, support, communication, and resources necessary to provide the quality of care families were paying for.
We ultimately felt safer keeping our children at home than leaving them at a school we were paying thousands of dollars each month to trust. We gave it enough time, but felt there wasn't a real path to improvement, with more problems cropping before prior ones were resolved.
In good faith, we cannot recommend this location. Parents should review the Virginia DSS reports, ask detailed questions about staff retention and leadership turnover, and speak directly with current teachers, not just management.
Virginia DSS licensing reports:
https://legacy.dss.virginia.gov/facility/search/cc2.cgi?rm=Details;ID=50753;search_keywords_name=goddard%20old%20town%20alexandria read more
