I do not recommend the Akron Goddard School for many, many reasons…read more
First, my 15 month old was transitioned to an older room by himself (not in a group of peers) abruptly, with no overlap or plan in place to help him adjust to the new routines and teachers. His drop-offs got worse and worse until we removed him from the school. I later learned that there is supposed to be a written transition agreement plan signed by both the school and the parents.
Second, when we made friends with other families in the same room, we learned that we were being charged $200-300 more per month for the exact same service (same number of children, same number of days/week, same room, no meals). These families were not part of any corporate or income-based discount, were not aware of being on any promotional rate, and started at the school after us, so they weren't being grandfathered into a lower rate. When we spoke to one family and asked what they paid for 3 days vs 5 days a week, they were perplexed because they had been told it was a flat rate no matter how many days they sent their child. When we tried to ask the owner why we were paying $200-300 more per month than other families, the owner would not make himself available to discuss the issue and we had to go through the director. She was kind about it but couldn't give us any explanation. When the owner finally contacted us, it was through email to tell us he would not refund our pre-paid August tuition since we left voluntarily. In the same email, he accused us of threatening the director and cced his attorney on the email.
Finally, the owner lied to us during our initial tour. He told us (bragged about it, actually, which is why I remember it so clearly) that all additional activities (like soccer, dance, gymnastics for example) were free to all students because he does not want children to feel left out. This is why, he claimed, they charge a larger yearly registration fee-- to cover the additional activities. This turned out not to be true. They did charge us a larger yearly registration fee ($300) compared with other schools in the area, but we learned that any extra activities cost extra.
I do not recommend the Akron Goddard School. If you are already there, I recommend asking others in your room what they pay for the same service and being very proactive with making a plan for your child to transition between rooms, because they did not look out for my child's well-being in the transition and I did not know enough at the time to insist on anything else.
