Healthy Kids Extended Day Program INC.

If I could give this program zero stars I would. I was forced to use the program as my son's school district partnered with them for the first time this year. I wish whomever made that decision read the reviews or asked the parents advice because it has been nothing but a disaster since day one. The communication between the site manager is nonexistent. The school didn't even know the program was starting on the first day. Those that utilize the child care subsidy could not because the program apparently never received approval for it from the county, so they moved their kids to the boys and girls club, which is only taking kids ages 6-12 and lucky for me, my son is 5. There was no before school program as advertised and when asked why we, were told that the school would not allow it. That leads me to believe that conversations were once again not had between the site manager and the school. The first day of attending the program, my son peed his pants because staff did not have keys to access the secure building. He then peed his pants the following week due to the same issue. What if there had been an emergency, staff and kids (as young as 4) are just stuck outside because the site manager didn't ensure all staff have access to the building before the school year started? This led me to having to call the superintendents office to ensure the program staff could get key badges. Because of low enrollment, they combined the elementary and middle schools to one location but while waiting for that to happen, we went over a week with no after-school care and then had to fight tooth and nail for a credit that the company offered us. Once they hired more staff, the children went back to having the program as their schools. There are multiple staff, we dont know their names, we never know what staff will be with our child until we pick them up because the manager moves the staff around often to various schools. I've also been told by staff they were left with 14 kids once with them being the only staff on site. The final straw was, we were told 9 days in advance that the program is closing "due to low enrollment and not being able to compete with the boys and girls club." Now I have no child care for my son starting December 1st because the site manager and this agency could not get their lives together. I hope the school district does not even attempt to use Healthy Kids next year. For a family that does not meet the requirements for child care assistance, it was a waste of $900 during a time when the cost of everything is up and both parents have to work full time jobs to make ends meet. Do better, healthy kids.

This program is terrible. They can not handle any three year old toddler who does not follow the rules exactly. In fact, they BLAME the child rather than providing appropriate support and guidance. My child was isolated from others and not allowed to speak or interact with other kids because he was “acting out”. All of the correspondence about the issue has been directed at issues with my child rather than the staff. There is no respect whatsoever. They should not be caring for young children. Run for the hills.

If your child has special needs don’t bother placing them in this program. They don’t have the one on one support or staff. It is a group setting. Very overwhelming. The kids are in a small cafeteria which smells like soiled diapers when you walk in. The staff seemed nice. But personally wouldn’t recommend this before and after care.

On site staff 5 stars. I really can’t say enough good things about the teachers. My daughter isn’t the easiest, but her teachers are patient and try. Jodi has been helpful in the past as well. They’re all great at communication too. It’s Carla in the billing department. There was a billing mistake, which I was at fault for, but it happened during a dispute to an illegal fee charged by them. Although I have never missed a payment or had issues previous to this, there was no flexibility. A furniture business will send you an invoice for owed balances but not a program I rely on for childcare? Matter of fact I was told 10 mins before end of business day the Friday before my daughter was supposed to start summer camp that she couldn’t attend. Fast forward with this billing issue still in the way, I do not feel Carla would have honored a cancellation without a two week notice and drag out this dispute till the end of summer, making me liable for the entire tuition. Therefore I felt I had to revoke her status pending a start and leave my job to attend to my daughter as I don’t have backup childcare. Same day that I cancel her spot I get another credit card charge for the entire amount. Now I have almost 5,000 of my funds tied up when she couldn’t participate in it, and I may not have a job when summer is over. I wrote a good review for the principal of Franklin so they knew how happy and grateful I was to partake in this program, in efforts to the two schools consolidating in order to offer enough children to run the program. Now my daughter is left out of all of it. My daughter is one of 4-5 kids in the after school program and come fall I am going to have to look into moving just to rely on a different program.

The registration/subsidy department has terrible communication when it comes to tuition assistance. They don’t honor what’s stated on their website regarding the program, and the communication has been awful. Other than that, my son loves the program so far.