Next Best Thing To Grandma

Our two sons were enrolled at NBTTG since each was about three months old - the first going back to October of 2019. We had a wonderful experience through the infant room for both boys, and toddler program for our oldest, establishing great relationships with multiple staff members, but began to develop some concerns as our oldest transitioned into Pre-1. We addressed some of the concerns with management early on following the transition and felt, for a short period, that improvements were being made. Unfortunately, we proceeded to make note of additional red flags which further diminished our confidence and trust in the integrity of the facility and *some* of its staff members. The rapid turnover of, in our opinion, quality employees, multiple rate increases, behavioral development concerns, disciplinary inconsistencies, and lastly, a concerning isolated incident in which our son sustained a minor head injury, are some of the major items which led to our decision to seek care elsewhere. As parents, we understand that accidents happen and kids get hurt sometimes. However, we have reason to believe excessive force and unnecessary actions were taken by a particular staff member in an attempt to influence our son’s behavior, ultimately resulting in the otherwise avoidable head injury, as well as these actions being acknowledged and dismissed by those with the ability to take corrective action. We firmly believe that there were omissions of truth from us about the incident. We got the sense that our son, as well as some of the staff, were coerced into putting a “hush” around what happened and that we never acquired the full truth. When we followed up with management with the intent to ease our concerns, we got no such form of reassurance as we proceeded to receive inconsistent reports on what happened, and were denied access to the video footage which we hoped would have alleviated any doubts we had surrounding the incident. The resulting issue for us was, not the injury itself, but feeling a lack of honesty and transparency to us about the incident, a pressured influence over our child, and a failure by management to respond appropriately to the event(s) that took place. While we hope our experience and concerns are an isolated case, we could not ignore the wavering confidence we continued to feel over the course of our last few months at NBTTG, ultimately making the decision to remove our children from their care.

In response to Elizabeth- It’s really sad that you had to take that much time attacking another mom in a review. She was a frustrated parent who has every right to tell her experience just as you have every right to tell about your positive one. Nothing she said was a lie. She was referring to their other facility in Cambridge that’s been open many years. I suppose all the of the public DHS complaints/violations/corrective orders against both facilities owned by the same person are also lies then? Hopefully your aware of those (some are pretty serious) before trusting them with your kids and encouraging others to do the same.

If you have a child with special needs at all do not bring your child here!!! My husband & I are filing a lawsuit. After 6 days of care I was told my son was no longer welcome because he was leaving the room when he was not supposed. He is 2 and a half year old and is autistic. They made NO attempt to accommodate him per ADA requirements. Not only that - I warned them of this before we started care and was told it wouldn’t be a problem. As soon as I saw their doors I knew him running out was going to be an issue and they told me they could handle it. They shot down all of our suggestions any without valid reasons. They also claim to be on Parent Aware but they are not! You can put in their address and you will find nothing related to them. After taking to Facebook with my complaints. I was informed by a friend that when she applied for a job there several years ago she was told they don't care if their staff members test positive for drugs as long as it "doesn't effect your work". If you want shady, unreliable, untrustworthy, lazy, inattentive, operating at max restrictions - this is the place for you.

In response to Heather Lorge. How dare you lie about this place like that! I have 2 autistic children that attend there. And what do you mean by several years ago? Next best thing to grandma's owner has only been in North Branch for 2 1/2yrs. They made it very clear to me when I enrolled my children there that it was conditional depending on IF they could meet my children's needs! I know they made this clear to you as well because I was standing outside the office door waiting to speak with them myself. I would think if a place could not meet your child's needs you wouldn't want them to stay in that facillity anyways? At least they were honest and forward that they couldn't meet your child's needs insted of try to keep them in order to make a few more bucks! They have gone above and beyond with me and my children. They both attend North Branch Schools. One is 3yrs and the other 8yrs old they obviously have different needs. My 3 yr old is non verbal yet, he/she dosen't speak or speak well. However we keep the lines of communication open at all times and I address any issues immediatly, even if it requres me to leave work. I accept that my children are not "normal" and understand that it requires more effort on my part. Their staff are always at top performance and NONE are under the influence of ANY kind. They have even gone to my children's IEP meetings with the schools to make sure we are all on the same page and that they are meeting my children's needs! they don't get paid extra for that in fact I believe they have to use their own time, such as lunch or break time, to do so. They told me at one point that my youngest might have to be excused from the daycare due to behaviours. But I worked very hard at correcting those behaviours and kept the school informed as well and we were all able to work through it in a few days. In short they are very trustworthy and I have NEVER found a BETTER daycare than Next Best Thing To Grandma's Daycare! My husband is an active duty Marine so we have been all over the world from Africa to Europe and all over the states! I have dealt with many many dacares and have recommended this one to everyone I know with kids. I don't believe I will ever find another daycare to match this one! Heather just because it may not be convienent to you in your life right now don't blame it on a place that is being HONEST and STRAIGHT FORWARD with you!

We have been brining our child here since he was 3 months old. He loves it there and the teachers are wonderful.