Growing Seeds North

Our daughter has been here for 3 months. In those 3 months, we've been asked to keep her home almost weekly due to staffing shortage. They do not support their teachers. I feel bad for the teachers, but when you go to pick up your kid and the teachers look like there has been a death in the family, it's not a good vibe for the child or their development. This is the business's fault, not the teachers. We've been told we'd receive credits for the days we kept our daughter home, but we never received them. E-mails to receive the credit have not been responded to. We emailed them, letting them know we'd be removing our daughter from the school, giving the agreed-upon notice, and it's been over a month with no acknowledgement that she's leaving. It's a mess. I heard it used to be amazing before 2020, and things have gone downhill since. We're not happy taking our daughter there, but there's nowhere else for her to go right now. More recently, they have just not opened because teachers are asking to be paid and not getting paid. I don't blame them for not coming to work.

We have had our son enrolled at this daycare for about 8 months. The teachers at this school are amazing and really the only reason we have stayed. However, there has been a lot of staff turnover and consistent call-outs that cause parents to get emails multiple times per week asking that we "volunteer" to keep our babies home since they don't have enough staff to stay at ratio. Administration seems totally checked out and the teacher's union has exposed a lot of very shady behavior - not notifying all parents that there was an incident where children got out and were found by a bus driver on Rosa Parks Ave, silently canceling professional cleaning and laundering services, staff health insurance being canceled, lying about why their preschool closed, etc.

Growing Seeds North is going through a very turbulent time and is struggling to function on a basic level. They just closed half of the school because of financial difficulties and issues of having enough staff. I check my email every morning now because they send an email warning seemingly every other day that they may not be able to watch your child that day due to short staffing. I've received 15 such emails in the past two months. And yes, there have been a couple surprise days where it's our turn to keep our child home and my wife or I have to take work off unexpectedly which you can imagine is extremely frustrating. There is a teacher's union that has brought up some very serious issues that the owners have never addressed. They do not communicate with the teachers or parents about the claims that they have made, or make any plans to do anything about the issues. One such issue: in May children got out of the gate and were found playing on the sidewalks of NE Rosa Parks Way, which is a very busy street. They purportedly self-reported the incident and claimed they were almost done being investigated, and have let go of the teacher that they believe was at fault, but I can't help but think the lack of oversight I've noticed at this school is not to blame. I could go on and on. I have learned from others that these issues have been happening with these owners for a long time. Yes, Portland and Oregon in general have been deemed by some to be a "childcare desert" so I understand some of the issues with staffing. But this school has too many issues for me to list here that make it impossible for me to believe that they are just victims of this issue. That's not to say there haven't been some nice periods or moments at this school. There are some great teachers here, and occasionally they have fun events with parents and kids. Sadly, after having been there a year we will be taking our child out of this school as I have little confidence in its basic functioning.

Growing Seeds greatly disappointed my family, failed to provide what we were promised, and preyed on us for money. I'd give 0 stars if it were an option. Given a convenient location (especially after commuting 20-40 minutes to our original daycare), the classroom and play set-ups, and organic meals served, I chose to ignore the advice of the not one, but two separate neighbors whose children had briefly attended who recommended we stay away. This was a mistake. After enrolling our one year-old son with a start date a couple of months in the future, I reached out 4/26/24 with further questions when the tuition and costs were raised more than I had anticipated. This was an already stressful time period as my son was about to have surgery and would be attending directly following his recovery period. I did not receive a response to the five emails and two voicemails I sent over a course of a month, until 5/23/24, and this was only after I mentioned that I may be leaving a negative review and/or seeking legal action. My son was supposed to start the following Thursday, 5/30. I was assured at enrollment and when last speaking with a staff member we would be contacted two weeks before the start date to meet the teacher and discuss the transition. Additionally, I had mentioned that my one year-old son would require some special care given the surgery he received earlier in the month, which I also expected to discuss well in advance. I was not contacted by anyone from Growing Seeds regarding his first day and/or teacher. Given the lack of responses to my phone and email messages, as well as lack of communication regarding my child's start date, I did not feel comfortable or safe putting my son in the care of Growing Seeds. This was not a decision made lightly, and it put my family at a disadvantage as well. This decision was made specifically due to the treatment and lack of communication we received from Growing Seeds, which felt negligent and not in line with what we were promised. I shared this with Growing Seeds, and never heard from them again. I also requested our initial deposit back, as this was not as simple as unenrolling my child- I was literally never contacted about his start date and/or given an option for him to attend the month we paid for. I suspect they were happy enough to have received over $2000 without ever having to provide services of any sort. I am extremely grateful we were able to get back into our previous daycare, and will happily drive the 40 minutes home for my child to attend a daycare he loves, that communicates with me daily, and that I have zero concerns about.

Our son went here for about a year, starting when he was 18 months. Overall, we regretted our decision and would not recommend it. They have high turnover, not enough staff (most weeks, they had to shut down a classroom or send some kids home because of ratios), and admin communication is poor. The teachers are absolutely wonderful though. They care about the kids and it's obvious they're doing their best while not getting enough support from the administration.