Highsmith Early Childhood Learning Center

Is not a bad place and the owner Miss D is a lovely and friendly woman. You can tell she loves her job and goes above and beyond for her families and her kids and my son loved the playground. Also the prices are affordable considering how expensive child care is nowadays. However, there was administrative stuff that could have been better, specially with the communication and they only accept cash payments. In the end we decided to pulled our soon from day care and hired a baby sitter

My kids have been going to this daycare since they were infants.. 2013 to current!! My kids have also learned a lot of fundamental's & reading score's has excelled thru out the years. Ms.Dee & Albert have shown a lot of love from day 1. My kids Love this Daycare. I would definitely give this Daycare center 10/10.

1/10 the one star is the only positive here.. which happens to be The directors grandson who worked in the infant room. My infant appeared to genuinely like him! He’s professional, communicates well, gives updates at pick up and overall he’s a nice young man! Now for everything else; ZERO! Especially the director Diedra Highsmith. She admitted to giving my children medication without mother & father consent. She gets upset and mouthy if you have any questions about fees. Don’t make any arrangements without a paper trail because she will lie to your face. Don’t have any questions pertaining to fees because she will get mouthy and disrespectful. Put DCF on speed dial if you don’t get ELC assistance. If you do get ELC then report everything to them. They can help with filing reports to DCF. The director won’t want you past the front door because you’ll see and hear all kinds of things that shouldn’t be going on such as my infant half way falling out a swinger crying and screaming while a teacher is sitting watching him literally uncomfortable and falling out of it. He wasn’t strapped in. He could’ve hurt himself if I hadn’t walked in. The director got mouthy with me for walking in seeing it instead of getting with the sorry worker for allowing it to happen. It’s beyond me. The cameras must be decoration. Very dishonest.. if you have to place your child here smh Read your receipt before leaving. Unprofessional and appears to be in it for the money. My three year old tested well above kids that have been in her facility since infants and she kept him in a class with two year olds to make more money despite his age & being potty trained and telling me she’d move him to the 3yr old classroom. She got mouthy with my sons father because he was an hour away and the children were sick. Made him pick up one child and then called an hour later to come back and pick up the other. When asked initially about both children she said one was okay. Turned out to be a lie. Because both had to be picked up same day. Gives outside food to children. The cut off times apply to whomever she wants them to and others can come in late. Keep your personal business to yourself because the director cannot hold water. Talks about parents personal business to other parents. Unprofessional. Expect your children to be yelled at for doing anything “wrong”. Redirecting is not practical at this daycare. My infant got in trouble for holding his own bottle at ten months. The daycare and playground are pretty nasty and really outdated for what you pay. Take your children jackets with you. I Can’t tell you how many times the daycare looses things or I’ve seen other children take things home that don’t belong to them! If your infant drinks ready to feed milk don’t place them here. They don’t properly store the milk. It’ll be spoiled at pick up! The list goes on. In summary, there are much better daycares in the area with regular child updates, professionalism, genuine concern for your child’s development and clean. Glad my children no longer attend this facility!

She called my child special needs in front of the entire staff and all the parents. This is the first time I’ve heard this about my child. She recommended he get a check and be put on medication just because he screamed at her and pulled his hand back when she tried to hold it. (The average director should know not all kids want to be touched nor do they have to). Then later on told me that I couldn’t bring back any of my kids because she “wasn’t going to play games with y’all”. So now I have to find a new daycare for both of my children. I pray that we have an extremely better experience some where else!

My kids went here for about a year. Both of them loved it. Ms D worked with me as long as I communicated. My daughter LOVED her teacher. All the staff were friendly