Updated Review for Estrella KinderCare…read more
My son has been at Estrella KinderCare since he was 3 months old. For a long time, I truly felt confident in this center. While our early experience was positive, everything changed once he entered the toddler room.
My son came home more than once with unexplained injuries. I picked him up once and discovered his mouth was bloody. I asked what happened, his teacher said, "I have no idea what happened." That answer was not only dismissive--it was alarming.
He also had two separate incident reports for falling off classroom furniture--once from a table and another time from a chair. My question is this: if a teacher is truly supervising toddlers, how on earth is a child able to climb onto a table, stand long enough to fall, and get hurt--all without anyone noticing or stopping it? Toddlers are quick, yes, but that's exactly why supervision matters.
Not long after, I personally witnessed a toddler teacher at Estrella KinderCare physically pushed a child down, causing him to fall and cry. The moment I saw that, I could not help but wonder if this was how my own son's injuries had occurred. It's one thing to get an "accident report." It's another to see with your own eyes how a teacher treats the children in their care.
I immediately reported the incident to the director, Josie. She seemed concerned and assured me the teacher had been placed on leave pending an investigation. I wanted to believe her. But the very next day, when I arrived to pick up my son, that same teacher was in the toddler classroom--chatting and laughing with other staff. When I asked why she was there, I was told she was just picking up her own child. But here's the issue: if a teacher is supposedly on leave for pushing a toddler, why is she being allowed back into the classroom, interacting with the same kids? To me, that looked less like accountability and more like damage control.
I have walked into the toddler room and seen teachers with their backs turned to the children while using their cell phones/the classroom iPads. As an educator myself, I cannot overstate how unacceptable that is. I am responsible for a classroom of children every day. I know what proper supervision looks like, and I know what negligence looks like. What I saw at KinderCare was negligence.
At that point, my trust is gone. I unenrolled my son immediately.
If you have a child in the toddler room at Estrella KinderCare, please be mindful of what's happening. Aggressive behavior toward children should never be tolerated, and yet here, it was brushed aside. What's worse is that the staff culture seems more interested in protecting each other than protecting the children.
After pulling my son out, I decided to dig deeper. I looked up reports from the Arizona Department of Health Services regarding Estrella KinderCare. What I found shocked me--but it also, sadly, didn't surprise me. This center had already been cited for poor supervision of children by teachers and for excessive incident reports. These are the exact issues my son continued to experience almost a full year after those citations were issued. In other words, nothing had changed. The problems were documented, known, and ongoing. I'll be attaching screenshots of these reports in my review so other parents can see them as well.
I gave Estrella KinderCare the benefit of the doubt too many times, and my son paid the price. Please, if you are considering sending your child here: don't. It's not worth the risk. There are caring teachers in this world, but the culture of this particular center feels broken and unsafe.
For transparency, I'm leaving my original review below to show just how quickly things changed:
My son has been going to Estrella KinderCare since he was 3 months old. He's now almost 2 years old and thriving! I can feel how loved he is by all the staff as soon as we step into the building. Any time I have a concern or issue, it is handled quickly. I can genuinely say that my child enjoys being dropped off every morning! Thank you to all the KinderCare teachers!
