Grace Church Day Care Center

Great friendly staff including Lindsay the Director, infant care and 4/5YO teachers. Ms Nae was amazing in infant care; always calm, caring, dependable, and greatly with our baby. We had all three of our children there for approximately one year and only left because of full-time elementary school and home availability for our 1 yo. Are the only critique we might have is the overall aesthetics of the place, but we were happy to live with an outdated aesthetic facility for the significantly cheaper tuition rates in comparison to other nearby larger chains. Grace helped us save money while still getting quality care for our 3 children.

My DD started her daycare here since she was two. Overall it's been a smooth ride. Teachers were nice and accommodating, new management staff have been responsible and all. They did have quite a turn-over rate on the assistants though, and the management has been keeping quiet on the change of staff. Parents were caught off-guard until they realized that the teachers were not there for a while.

This school took a disappointing dive in the past year. I was trying to be patient during management change but they just didn’t cut it. Very disorganized, staff seems overwhelmed and it’s easy to see why. They have DOUBLED their rates for next year and for the life of me I can’t figure out how they are rationalizing this unless they have hired Mary Poppins. They claim it’s because of the curriculum but the same curriculum is implemented much more effectively elsewhere. There is undo stress put on the teachers and it effects the children. The classes are too big. I was told they would only be 15 kids per preschool class. Last year we ended with 23. This year we were at 20-22 when I pulled my son out. Do not waste your hard earned money here or your child’s precious time. The one teach there that I trust has plans to retire soon.

UPDATE: So the center decided to kick my son out b/c of the below review I wrote. Two week notice and a BS excuse having nothing to do with behavior problems, disrespect, or non payment. Pretty much confirms how the center is run and the wonderful, thoughtful decision making that is always in the best interest of the children. Pure pettiness. However, we just received notice his classroom will be getting a new teacher (having had numerous changes with assistants already this year). If they hadn't terminated our services, this would have been the last straw for our family. ORIGINAL POST: My son has been at this daycare since he was 2 (he's almost 5). We loved his 2 year old teacher who no longer works at Grace. She taught the children & my son knew his letters, numbers, days of the week, seasons, colors, & left from right hand at the age of 2. A few of the assistants she had were horrible (non-attentive, lazy, etc.). When my son moved to the 3s classroom, all went downhill. The teachers weren't teachers at all, but terrible babysitters. The kind that made you wonder if they even liked children. Every time I picked up my child, they were running to give me bad news about him, never anything positive. The issue was they had no structure or control in a classroom full of 3s. I was told by another teacher some of the staff would yell and pull on the children if they weren't listening. I stayed in the Director's office and had a full blown argument with one of his teachers in that classroom. The staff knows me well (b/c of all the issues we've had) and thank God I've taught my son to tell me everything b/c I didn't trust (and still don't) anyone at this school. I emailed the Director & people in charge repeatedly requesting my son be moved out of the classroom or we'd be leaving. They moved him to another classroom with a better teacher (he was placed in the 4s when he was 3). I felt ok leaving my son at this daycare b/c his 2 year old teacher looked out for him. She made sure he was listening & none of the teachers were ill-treating him. Unfortunately, she was fired less than a year ago (she was the strongest teacher they had in school) for missing too many days (even though her days off were approved for needed surgery). My son's father and I decided not to pull him out since he is getting ready to start school and we didn't want him going through too many changes, otherwise we would have left when the two year old teacher was let go. My son is getting ready to go into Kindergarten and doesn't know what he should. He has regressed since leaving the 2s classroom & barely knows his letters. We are pulling him out of this horrible daycare in June - we can pay less money for camp with better care. This daycare has had 4 different directors in 2 years & numerous turnover. A new person quits every other month (the good ones). My son's class has had more substitute teachers this year than I had my entire 12 years of school and they have no control over the kids. I think the school forgets or doesn't know that children this age need and thrive off consistency and routine. The staff do not have control over the children at all (go in and do a tour at 8am). The teachers yell at the children & use bad language in front of them. My son's favorite thing to say is "Jesus Christ" and he definitely didn't learn this at home! The daycare is closed more than other daycare centers in the area. Toys & equipment are old. They charge you for everything and the money clearly doesn't go back into the school. Kids don't learn. Last year, a staff member broke a toddlers arm and the staff tried to hide it. Last summer, they painted and rearranged classrooms and had them inaccessible during the day (all the kids were stuffed in one classroom while paint fumes were all over the school) and STILL closed for an entire week the very next week (to do what, I don't know) You paying for bad babysitters here. STAY AWAY!!

Wow! I just heard one of the children in my child's school is getting kicked out of school b/c the parent wrote a bad review online. I didn't believe it at first, because that's bullying, but it was just confirmed by the parent this morning. I wanted to come online myself to see what was said to have been kicked out of school. I decided to leave my own comment about my families experience at Grace. It's true there have been numerous directors, a lot of turn over in staff and inconsistency over the past few years and it's still continuing. There were a few families and teachers that left once this current Director, started and the firing of the Two Year Old Room's teacher and assistant. There was a letter sent out last year about an infant's arm being broken while under the care of the school. I also heard about a child getting a black eye from an "accident" with a teacher a few months ago. I'll be honest, a lot of what I see in these reviews are true - the daycare isn't the best. You can hope to like a teacher and hope they stick around. The tenure of the teachers and assistants of this school is short. The current Director is not personable like Ms. Jenn and Ms. Amy were. We often saw them visiting classes and talking to parents and children - I've never seen Ms. Sharon do that so I can't really comment on her. I've walked in the am and have seen lots of children together in one room, not enough staff, kids fighting/crying and at one point, one of the teachers yelling to the top of her lungs at one child. The assistants in the afternoon don't seem to like children very much, are always sitting, talking among themselves. One time I went to pick up my child and the assistant was sitting on the bench outside with her eyes glued to her phone. Didn't even try to hide that she was on her phone or put it away when she saw me or anything. We are still at Grace due to price and location, but with them trying to increase tuition rates in June, not sure we'll stay. I called KinderCare up the street from Grace and with the increase, they'll be the same in cost and KinderCare has more tenured staff, better curriculum, and seems to be a happier environment all around. I don't know, it's been nothing but constant changes at Grace and they can't seem to figure it out. To me, if teachers are frequently leaving, that's a sign.