We were very disappointed in our experience at Legacy Academy…read more
When looking for a daycare for my son, I toured this school twice and thought I loved everything about it - it was clean and up to date, had a great curriculum, and was midline when it came to price. There was no real question in my mind when we decided to enroll.
When we arrived for our first day (which had been "on the books" for a month), they were totally unprepared - there was no bin or drawer set up for him in the classroom, no name on the door or a crib for him, and the teachers seemed frazzled and overwhelmed. That afternoon when I went to pick him up, he was sitting in the middle of the floor by himself, crying.
We frequently observed that many of our items - especially clothing - ending up in the wrong bins at least once a week, and even once my husband unwittingly brought home a trashbag containing a "blowout" outfit from another baby - gross! We had labeled the clothes as requested, but that did not seem to help.
Even though the school advertises that they are NAEYC-certified, we observed on several occasions that they did not adhere to the 4:1 student-teacher ratio advertised. When my husband brought it up to the staff, he was reminded that "GA law says 6:1." In addition, in the mornings when there was only one instructor in the infant room and too many students, they REGULARLY LEFT THE CLASSROOM DOOR OPEN. Once when we were dropping off, I actually saw the teacher looking around for one of the babies - she thought he had walked out of the room "again"!
Also, on our tours, I had asked on two separate occasions if glass bottles were permitted. I was told by the director that they were. In their paperwork, the school specifies plastic - so I asked again and was once more told that glass was okay. One day, a "mass message" was sent out to parents over their app saying "As it says in our handbook, no glass bottles are permitted... Effective immediately, parents who bring in glass bottles will be sent home with them." I understand the rule and the need to enforce it, however - we were the only family with glass bottles. I would have also appreciated a personal conversation and maybe even a "mea culpa" for telling us initially that they were allowed. We had to go out that night and purchase new plastic bottles to use - some notice, maybe a weekend, would have been nice.
The final straw, however, came with school pictures. I observed as the director actively engaged with the little girl before my son (from an older class) in an effort to get her to smile. When it came time for our turn, she walked away. Worse than that, when he fell off of a prop they were using, face-forward onto the concrete, scraping up his face, she didn't even come over to see if he was okay!!! (Reminder: my son is an *infant* - so this is a big deal.) She actually didn't even acknowledge that anything had happened at all! It wasn't until the next day, when I went up to the desk and asked if she had seen what happened (through the bidding of one of his teachers, who pointed out to me that this was absolutely something that we should be concerned about), that she acknowledged the incident and said she would speak to the photographer about changing their set up next time.
The teachers are not bad, but I believe that they are overwhelmed. And the staff isn't very friendly - any time we walked in, the front desk was either unoccupied or the staff would barely bother to say hello to us (though I will say that this improved a bit in the last month or so that we were there). It's also worth noting that over his time at this school, my son developed an aversion to having his diaper changed - he would scream and thrash around and try to flip over whenever we put him on the changing table. After three weeks away from Legacy, that behavior has completely stopped.
After four months at Legacy, I can say I wouldn't recommend this school to any parent who wants their child to be in a calm, nurturing daycare environment.