Altoona 8th Street Child Care

I love this child care center! My son started when he was 2 1/2 years old and my daughter has been there since she was 6 weeks old! They are professional and kind! Mrs. Janet and Mrs. Nicole have been a huge part of helping raise and take care of children throughout all of our years there! I feel like we are family when we walk through the door every morning! My son still enjoys stopping in to say hi to his favorite teachers!

My 4 year old who has had nothing but trouble since moving to their preschool class, has managed to be left alone long enough to stick things in his ears twice in that classroom (when i asked the director about it, she laughed). Preschool teachers will text you all day long telling you how your child is being so bad when in actuality the teachers the ones were not trained to handle anything. Do yourself a favor and look into the history of this place. The teachers claimed that 4 year olds are always bullying them when four-year-olds are not capable of bullying. It's like four year-olds watching four-year-olds and most of the time there are too many there for the teachers. My son didn't even make it a year because I couldn't send him to a place where the teachers allowed a child who hit at least one student every day to continue to come back every day. My son didn't feel safe. Yet they threatened to send him home while I was at work because he was "growling" at them.

I wish I would’ve took the time to do my research on this facility before enrolling my children. Things seemed pleasant and to be going well, despite minor things. Children had only attended for barely two weeks. I was called in the middle of class to pick my children up as I was informed they were short staffed and my kids were having a bad day. I arrive and I’m being given all of my kids belongings as if this was their last day. Before leaving I had to go and ask the head person to confirm this and was told I was going to be given two weeks as she felt my children needed one on one care they couldn’t provide. I was never talked to or given notices of my children having behavioral issues at all. This came as a surprise. Upon calling later to make arrangements to retrieve other items I was told they could return the next day to finish the two weeks. I expressed my concerns of no longer feeling comfortable so I declined . Besides that I had noticed my kids had already been removed from the daycare app. I was also told the staff claimed I always left too quick for them to talk to me. Mind you I have twin toddlers it takes me almost ten minutes to leave the facility every time I pick up and a staff member is always assisting me with my kids when I do come. No one ever took advantage of that time to speak to me about any issues nor did I ever receive an incident report on the Procare app or hand written report. Though she apologized for where her staff messed up at this inconvenienced me. I now have no time to find another daycare and have to drop from school today. I’m extremely hurt and disappointed. It’s not about my kids having to be let go it’s about the inconsideration. We all as individuals are fighting battles no one knows about. I’m a single mother with not a lot of support. I’m working hard to further myself to strengthen my foundation for my children, to persevere in the face of adversity. I was relieved to finally get into a position to complete this part of my education as it would’ve aided in helping me excel in my career. When this facility and their staff dropped the ball on taking the responsibility to communicate they damaged my opportunity and set me back. I’ll never give up on what I’m destined for. However it’s time for people to do their jobs correctly because where you lack at can create a slipper slope for others. Not to mention every time I picked my children up they were completely dirty, pull-ups hadn’t been changed in a couple of hours, and they were rarely ever put in their back up clothes as if the staff never checked their bag. I also caught a staff member warning another staff member to hurry up and change my kids before I come, not realizing I’m standing right there. My kids had been in poopy pull-ups for over an hour. I addressed these concerns upon dropping them off the next day with their teacher. Finally it stopped the next day but they still failed to at least wipe my kids faces and nose. All I can say is do you research when you choose a facility and make sure their staff has great communication. I’ve read the other unprofessional responses that have been written under the other reviews. That alone should speak volumes about the professionalism of this facility.

When my 4 yr old started here around 4 months ago we quickly got through the adapting stage and I do believe the teachers from both honey bees and wiz kids more particularly Ms. Shelbie played a huge role in helping with this because she would approach my daughter each and every day at drop off time and immediately try to comfort, welcome and distract her and this was extremely helpful for me and just made things much easier on me through the adjustment period. The teachers have also shown interest in my child and her love for superheroes so this has helped tremendously as well. My daughter is happy here and I'm very thankful and appreciative for all that these teachers do with and for our children on a daily basis. Ms. Morgan and Ms. Shelbie: Many thanks to both of you for the wonderful care you provide my child. <3

The ONLY reason I can give 2 stars is because of the teachers for 2s and 3s. Let me start off that my son is medically complex. We were in the process of diagnosis when he started here. We requested as his parents for an AEA evaluation. The aea staff for SE Polk are a joke anyways, but all over his report it said "the center director said she wouldn't have even recommended him for evaluation and services." They then denied us based on this single statement from Kelly(it was all over the report). It took us over a year to finally get this terrible district and the words of this woman who had 0 idea out of his file. It also took the staff at his new center MONTHS to get AEA to see what we had been saying all along. My son is diagnosed Severe ADHD-combined type, anxiety, Working memory impairment, sensory Dyregulation disorder among a few others. He could have benefitted so much from that year of services from aea, except good ol Kelly said he didn't need them. Guess what? Obviously he did, because he now is in school utilizing a 1:1 aide...but don't worry, he didn't need any supports...right? 🙃 For anyone looking for quality childcare, I would suggest looking elsewhere...not only because this center is bad, but because Southeast Polk is a terrible district to involve yourself with. Edited to add: This review is for the center under the previous director, Kelly. And yes, the center is under SE Polk school jurisdiction when it comes to the AEA evals.