Safari Childcare INC

I would say that this is the worst place you could put your child for childcare. The Enrollment director has no idea what is going on, but is portrayed as the person managing the operations, and the Division Director never steps out of her office. My daughter, after being at Safari for a few weeks, began exhibiting a specific behavior. A couple incident reports were written and we were told it was not a big deal and that it was a phase. I met with the Enrollment director and he was supposed to instruct the staff on things to implement to help my daughter overcome the behavior. This never happened as I spoke to staff the next day and they said they had no idea about needing to do these things. A few days later, I was called to pick up my daughter as she was suspended for the rest of the day. I again met with the enrollment director, and we came up with a behavior plan which he was to write and train his staff on. An hour after I got home, he called to say my daughter was terminated from their services. They literally did nothing to try to help her and the only place she exhibited the behavior was their facility. Meanwhile, their mission statement states that they will nurture, respect and treat children with the utmost compassion which they do not abide by. So, instead of trying to help they ran from the problem. I truly believe the problem arose due to an ongoing problem with staff turnover, thus causing a low staff to child ratio. Many times, the teachers would be frustrated because they said they needed more help. When I would address this with the Director, he would make excuses like "the other staff is on break" or "in the bathroom." This absence causes the children a lack of attention, and thus causes behaviors as a cry out for attention. It is sad because on the surface they seemed good, but once you get into it, staff start talking and true colors begin to show. Yes, they have great rates compared to other places, however, be prepared to have your child suffer in other areas such as being in a classroom where the ratio was 1 teacher to 7 or 8 children. Also, it was concerning when they would have newborns in the same classroom as toddlers. When the Director stated that my daughters behavior was a safety hazard to a newborn, my question was, "Why is there a newborn in a classroom with toddlers?" The director did not have any further comment on the situation. The teachers are amazing and work hard but they do not have the support they need to properly care for and enhance your child's growth and well-being. If you want a facility that will ease your mind while you are at work or away on errands, please reconsider before entering your child into this facility.

The issues started off small and slowly became too big to ignore. First thing, my son (now 25 months) was always so dirty when I would pick him up from day care. It looked like his nose was never wiped and he would have dried snot above his lip and cheek area. I brought this us to Matthew the enrollment director and his teachers but it was never corrected. That wasn't such a big problem. I get it, toddlers are messy, especially boys, so I let it go. About a month in my son came home with a black eye and busted upper lip. When I picked him up the teachers lightly mentioned he had an incident on the slide with one of the other kids. There wasn't an accident report or anything. They told me they would get one to me. About three days later I still did not have one and I talked to Matthew about it and he told me he would have one to me the next day which I did. It was two sentences long, I don't know why that took so long but it obviously was not a priority. A couple weeks later when I was about to give my son a bath, I took off his shirt and he had a toddler size deep bite mark on his chest. This time no one even told me about it. When we went to daycare the next day I brought it up to his teacher and she had no idea that even happened. I was so upset because I know with a bite mark like that my son had to be crying and I have no idea if they even realized it or cared. One week after this he had another bite mark on his shoulder, the second time I was notified about it. I felt his teachers were not trained properly on how to prevent instances that could cause the kids to harm each other. My son always had bruises. When I told Matthew about is, he stated the other children were just defending themselves against my son. I looked elsewhere and found another day care that I instantly fell in love with. I gave safari a 30 day notice that my son would no longer be attending about 3 weeks ago because we were unhappy and I wanted something better for my son. Last Friday, I get a call at work around 11:30AM that my son was misbehaving and needed to be picked up. Within 30 minutes my mom came to get him. Matthew told me he would email an incident report and that we would talk later. Than Monday morning at 8:28 AM I get an email notifying me that my son was dis-enrolled from the day care effective last Friday. I drop my son off Monday-Friday between 8:30 AM and 9 AM. How could you do that to a parent I have no idea? I arrived to the day care to realize my key fob had been deactivated. Matthew came to open the door and asked if I had gotten his email. I said yes 5 minutes ago. I continued to ask how they could be so inconsiderate as to not give me a proper notice so I could make arrangements for my son otherwise. They already knew I had another place for my son. Had I been notified Friday, I could have called the other daycare and pushed his start date to this Monday and avoided the whole mess to begin with. When I asked why no one called or emailed me on Friday considering they close at 6:30PM. That gives them 7 hours from the time they called me to pick up my son Friday morning and the time they closed to let me know. Matthew stated they did not have the paper work done in time. They care more about covering their own behinds then they did about me and my son. To wrap things up, I was not allowed to get my sons things nor did they bring out to me at my request. They said I had to make an appointment online and meet their director somewhere to "avoid a scene." If they wanted to avoid the scene they should have gave me proper notice my son was dis-enrolled. They could care less, they were not apologetic and had a "good riddance" attitude with me and my child. I figure since they already knew we were leaving they just were trying to fill his spot sooner rather than later. I called their corporate office and was told to leave a message for their director. I have yet to receive a phone call or have made an appointment to pick up my sons belongings.

Have been taking my son here since he was 16 months and he is 4 now. I trust them and I feel like the staff really goes beyond what is expected to make my son (and other children) feel comfortable in a different environment. They have the right amount of free time and also structured learning time in place. I would like to see a lower turnover rate with teachers but that is expected at a daycare. All the teachers are friendly. My son has made a lot of friends and has learned a lot from here.

My son attended this daycare from the time he was less than six months old until today, Safari started out great. His first teacher was the best ever. Lilya. She took great care of him. From there he went on to the 6-12 month room and besides being sick from time to time things were good. Then he went to the 1-2 room. That's when things started to go sour. We were called every other week to come get him for the most minor indication that he hight possibly be sick and told we needed a doctor note before he was allowed back. This went of for a few months before I complained to the director and it finally stopped. Things were good again for a short time until they decided to cut off insurance to the teachers. A large majority of the teachers of course chose to leave. The replacements were and are less than desirable. The turnover rate is a joke. They went through 3 directors while my son was enrolled. My son went from being able to count to 20 easily when he wasn't even 3 to getting lost halfway through. He has a scar on his face by his eye from where he was scratched by another kid. We regularly received reports about him being hit over and over by the same child yet nothing was done. 2 days ago he was stabbed in the back with a pair of scissors by another child and today with absolutely no notice or warning whatsoever we were told our son was no longer allowed to attend the daycare. When I say no warning I mean NONE. None of the 3 directors ever gave us any indication he was causing enough problems to leave. We paid over $36,000 over the course of over 3 years. Our son had friends that he had known since he was a baby that now he will be asking about. This is how they treat the children they supposedly care about. Don't take your child here.

My children are 4.5, 2, and 1 yrs old and have all been coming to Safari since they were about 4 mths old. When my first born came for the first day I was terrified because I was leaving my baby with someone I did not know but as I gained more trust in the staff I couldn't imagine taking my babies anywhere else. My 4.5 year old has grown up with the same group of kids that he started with as babies and they have become his best friends. He also loves all his teachers. He has become a smart, independent and caring child who is ready to graduate and move onto kindergarten in the fall. I have two other kids following in his footsteps and I am confident that all the teachers at Safari will give them the same care and attention that my oldest has received