Kids Into Speaking Spanish

It breaks my heart to have to leave a poor review. The local staff are wonderful, but frankly KSS corporate administration deals unfairly with the families at KSS Albany. For the 2023-2024 school year, KSS administration announced a 50% tuition hike three days before the re-enrollment period begins in February 2023, with no added benefit to KSS Albany students. Instead, that additional $900-$1,000/mo tuition primarily funds KSS programs at campuses other than Albany. There was no additional communications or input from parents about this change. As for the quality of the childcare, the KSS Albany teachers and director Yanci are wonderful, and the facility is great. The staff provide a nurturing environment where our child learns a ton--including becoming totally fluent in Spanish. We love that the school is in the park, so there are lots of opportunities for the kids to explore outdoors during the school day and play in the park after school. We understand that inflation is high and costs go up, but it's hard to justify a $1,000/mo tuition increase when your child won't see any benefit. I can't help but feel like KSS administration isn't looking out for the families, and it makes me worry about what other deficiencies I might be missing.

My daughter has been at KSS for 2 years and has loved every teacher she has had as well as the director, Yanci. The learning environment at the Albany campus is warm and very welcoming and friendly to the parent community. That is why I have to express my disappointment and frustration with the recent changes that have taken place in the larger KSS organization as a whole. While the teachers and the actual school are still fantastic, the preschool was recently bought by a private equity firm, and the new owner's focus seems to be solely on making money at the expense of the families without any eye to the quality of education for current students. Without any warning, current families received an email notification that KSS has increased the annual fees for the next year by a staggering 50+% just three days before re-enrollment, causing unnecessary stress and financial burden on many families. They also implemented a system to penalize those families who do not have $20,000+ just sitting around by adding additional fees to those who elect to pay in installments rather than upfront when previously, you could pay monthly. The announcement included an option to apply for financial aid, however that technically also comes with an additional $60 application fee! All these new costs are supposedly being implemented so that the company can start new elementary school programs ELSEWHERE and none of the funds will actually go to the current Albany preschool or students. It's clear that this private equity firm is more interested in maximizing profits than investing in their teachers or the current children's education. As a community, we deserve better. It's essential to have a preschool that is affordable, nurturing, and that truly cares about the well-being and development of our children. I hope that the private equity firm will take into account the impact of their actions and make changes that align with the values of the families and the school.

The teachers and director are great. Love them. My daughter has learned SO MUCH. The two stars are given due to the corporations lack of respect and honesty. They've increased our tuition more than 50% from one year to the next to subsidize a new K-5 program nowhere near Albany. No improvements will be made at KSS Albany so we are being asked to pay a whole lot more for NOTHING in return. Do yourself a favor and don't even give them your application money.

The school itself is wonderful. The teachers and our individual location's director are fantastic, and my daughter has learned a ton and is fluent in Spanish. However, we are likely going to leave KSS and are warning everyone we know against it due to the overall administration. KSS is a small chain of preschools in the Bay Area, and apparently was bought by Crane Capital, a private equity group that is looking to grow the preschools, funded by parents who will do anything for our children, knowing that switching schools for a child is an extremely difficult (based on kids' emotions as well as the crazy long waiting lists of alternative preschools, given the extremely short notice of this decision). After suggesting to parents that tuition would remain similar year-over-year, they surprised us three days before enrollment with a 50-60% price increase, and their communications made it quite clear that this money was not going to our local school, but rather to fund the development of two private elementary schools. We are so disappointed and can't support an organization that is putting profits and growth so high above the kids' wellbeing, parents' trust, and teachers (who we suspect will be seeing VERY little of this additional money).

This school is just ok. It made sense for us because we wanted an affordable immersion program and we were willing to make some compromises. Now that they have implemented a sudden tuition increase of +50%, they have a long way to go before they can compete with other Bay Area immersion schools in that tier, that have better reputations and stronger academics. The administration at KSS is incompetent. There has been extremely high teacher turn over, and we have watched all of our child's favorite teachers leave one after the other (5+ teachers in about a two year timeframe plus the Director). The way they have handled the tuition increase and roll out of their new K-5 program demonstrates their inexperience running a K-5 program...Like burying a 50% tuition increase in a re-enrollment email 3 days before the enrollment period starts and hoping parents wouldn't notice. Or, issuing a tuition calculator a week later and having to send out two corrections because it wasn't working properly. After what we have experienced, there is no way I would send my child to be part of their first K-5 cohort. I can only imagine the poor communication and issues those families will deal with. I think a lot of the other families have been very generous here under the circumstances. I feel very fortunate that my daughter is graduating shortly and we will leave this mess behind us, but many of the other families are now stuck. Also, after learning about the top leaderships links to the disgraced Brain Balance Achievement Centers, which provides expensive and scientifically questionable treatments for children with autism - that's a big NO THANK YOU to KSS. *** Amending this to share an excerpt from a draft of next year's contract that has been shared with parents. Under "Parent Cooperation" there is an effective gag order that says they can kick your kid out if you leave them a bad review: "Thus, if the behavior, communication, or interaction on-campus, off-campus (including during School-sponsored events), or via digital or electronic means (including, but not limited to, listservs or online forums) of Parents or other Affiliated Individuals is disruptive, intimidating, overly aggressive, or reflects a loss of confidence in or serious disagreement with the School, including but not limited to disagreement with its decisions, strategies, policies, procedures, responsibilities, delivery of the program, strategic initiatives, personnel, leadership or standards, or imperils accomplishment of its educational purpose or program, threatens the health safety or well-being of another member of the school community, or is otherwise inconsistent with commitments shared by members of the community, Parents understand and agree that the School has the right to dismiss the Student from the School, the School property, a School event, or other such restriction or action as determined in the School’s sole discretion."