Embe South Child Care Center (Ywca)

This entire facility deserves to be recognized. We have never had a child care provider that has not put the entire heart and soul into their job to care for these children. The communication with everyone, including us parents, is excellent. Everyone listens to the parents concerns while giving out solutions instead of problems. The children bring home cute art projects while working on their motor skills. The balance between education and fun is spot on. When my child gets excited to go to daycare, it lightens up the burden of bringing them in. I cannot thank them enough for all they do every day.

We transferred our 2 (now 3) year old to Embe from a different center. It is literally night/day. We used to have to pick our child up before 330 or else he would be sobbing when we got there. At Embe, our son would be fine staying as late as we needed him to be there. We chose Embe because we had a second child and the turnover at our old daycare was crazy. When we heard the teacher in the infants room at been there for 10 years, we were locked in. Also, the facilities are great. It feels like a school! The staff are great and we haven’t had a teacher issue yet. We would recommend Embe South to anyone.

I scheduled a meeting with management and made it known I had 30 minutes before I had to be at work. Sarah Meagher showed up 15 minutes late leaving us 15 minutes to discuss my concerns. Very unprofessional. I left the meeting feeling unheard, defeated, and personally attacked. If you have a child with a disability of ANY kind I highly do not recommend EmBe. Staff have ZERO knowledge of how to take care of children with disabilities. The director or curriculum, Sarah Meagher, also has ZERO knowledge on how to help children with disabilities. Funny you have a director of curriculum position. Staff lack communication. My son was not placed on the bus to attend school, which is where he gets OT and speech therapy, on two separate occasions and staff did not inform me of this. My son is non-verbal autistic and uses visuals to help communicate in which staff were neglecting to use. Staff do not interact with children and sit at their desks "observing" them play instead. I have heard staff rudely yelling at children. I brought to attention how unsafe the gym is during free play due to lack of structure and NOTHING was done about it. Even after my son was hit in the head with a child on a scooter. When I met with upper management I was told "maybe this isn't the place for you" and they attacked my personality vs. hearing my concerns about my sons care. My son has had multiple incident reports and staff ironically never see it happen. No camera's in rooms. My son was not properly helped while potty training and would often pee on himself or through his pants. Staff utilize Procare to document what each child eats throughout the day. Staff group children together and provides inaccurate information on what each child eats individually. Staff would post my son ate all his lunch meanwhile he is at school in a totally different location. There are better places in Sioux Falls then this. You do not get what you pay for. 1,000% do not recommend.

We were charged a large deposit just to tour the facility. We ended up finding an in home that better suited our children. We emailed to see if we could get the deposit back as all we did was tour it (less than 20 minutes) and didn’t need to hold a spot). We have yet to hear back.

We love Embe South! We transferred and our daughter has transitioned so well and is thriving!