Acme Children'S Center

For those that want an academic based school, I would HIGHLY recommend this school. I found my child was unhappy at other academic based schools and didn't progress as much as I had hoped. My child has always been happy and responded well with the staff at ACME/Learn and Play Montessori. I don't recall a single time where I dropped him off where he cried, which is quite different than the other places he attended. Feedback from my child has always leaned toward staying at ACME/L&PM vs the other schools he attended. Our son has attended Learn and Play Montessori school and ACME at multiple points of his early education. The first time he attended was just during the summer time, he went to a highly ranked and credible academic school the following school year where he then attended ACME again the following summer. We debated what school to attend the following year but found that his academic progress at ACME in both periods was too great to deny. Currently there is a GREAT RATIO that allows our child to get the attention and focus of the teachers he would not get anywhere else. This has led him to excel past my expectations in English, Mandarin, Math, Science, and very impressed with his progress in his reading skills very early in Pre-k. Thanks to Learn and Play Montessori school, we feel our child is well prepared for any school that he attends next year.

My older daughter attended under Ms Le back when this was ACME, and my younger daughter is in her 3rd year now under Ms Lin. We have loved all the teachers and have seen them all care quite a lot for our girls. We have also seen that our older daughter was very well prepared for kindergarten and our younger one seems to be learning even faster. Neither my wife nor I knew any mandarin previously, and yet our younger one is excelling and now we are learning too. We certainly recommend the school to anyone looking for a good program to transition a child from day care into a preschool that preps well for school.

I was deeply disappointed by the way child safety concerns were handled. Communication lacked transparency, and I never felt confident that incidents were addressed appropriately. Director Yaling (Eileen) Lin frequently spoke to staff in a demeaning and unprofessional manner in front of children, which many parents witnessed. While several teachers were genuinely caring, a few were not, and those few created an unsafe and unpleasant environment for children.

We recently learned that multiple child abuse incidents occurred here in May 2025, including one that was investigated and confirmed by California Department of Social Services. School hasn't communicated anything to parents and has even denied that the incidents occurred. We and many parents have withdrawn our children. To be fair, most of the teachers there are nice people, this is more a reflection of the leadership and ownership not being transparent nor handling issues with integrity. Google search "Learn and Play child abuse" to see the state investigation and report.

Really disappointed with how they handled child safety concerns. I did not feel that the staff (especially the director) could be trusted to keep children safe or be transparent about harm or incidents.