Please think carefully before you send your child to this center. My child attended Willows from October 2023 until February 2025. Our decision to send them there is one I sincerely regret. The positive reviews you see are from when this school was under different management.
I encourage anyone thinking about sending their children to this school to check the Colorado Shines website. One of those licensing violations included an incident with my child at this school, in which they were dunked into the swimming pool as a punishment. They had been going through a phase where they were scared of the water and didn't want to swim that day. They were just barely 3 years old at the time. My child was clearly upset when I brought them home that day but couldn't explain why. I didn't find out about this incident until the next day, after I'd already dropped them off at school and gone to work. Even then, the director significantly downplayed the incident, telling me their "toes were dipped" in the water. It wasn't until the case worker from Child Protective Services called me to tell me what had actually happened that I'd found out the truth. And it wasn't until the licensing violations report came out months later that I found out this particular teacher had been abusing my child and others in the room the entire school year.
If that wasn't enough, my child got a new set of teachers in the next room, one of which didn't mesh with a lot of the kids, including mine. My kid's behavior was atrocious at home until this woman was fired. There was never any communication from the director that this teacher was let go - she was just gone one day.
When I brought up concerns about the teachers not applying sunscreen to my child, I was told that they only apply sunscreen based on the UV index and temperatures for the day. We provided them with a 6oz tube of sunscreen, only half full when we started at the school, and they never asked us for a new tube in the 1.5 years they attended. The center doesn't provide sunscreen. My child consistently told me they didn't put it on them.
My child had started having potty accidents since the pool incident. We had brought it up to the school multiple times and were assured that they would help address it. Most days I picked them up, they smelled like pee or had wet pants. Now that they are home with us and we assured them they weren't going back, they immediately stopped having accidents. I feel as if they didn't supervise well enough. All they needed to do was ensure that they went to the bathroom with everyone else and actually used the potty. There were other concerning incidents related to their level of supervision. Another child somehow was able to color marker all over my child's front, back, and face without a teacher noticing. There were also a few instances of me finding them sitting up at the front door alone or playing alone with a group of kids in the multipurpose room when I picked them up.
While some of the teachers here were great, my child absolutely deserved better than the treatment they received. I am especially disappointed by the current director's management and her poor communication regarding serious incidents, change in staff, and timely notification of illnesses spreading through the center. Please think twice about putting your child in their unsafe environment. read more
