The Caring Center

The Caring Center is truly a fitting name. I sent both of my children there, seven years apart, and the experience was consistently excellent. The school takes the time to understand each child’s individual needs and does an outstanding job supporting both behavioral and academic development. It is a wonderfully inclusive environment, welcoming children of all cultures, socioeconomic backgrounds, and learning styles. Even at the youngest ages, children are exposed to enriching experiences like field trips. You can tell the teachers bring a wealth of experience and are genuinely invested in the school and its students. I also love that they have a culinary kitchen, so parents never have to worry about their child receiving a nutritious meal. Two thumbs up for the Caring Center.

I’m a therapist that’s worked with small kids in all different daycares over the years. This daycare stood out to me as one of the best ones I’ve gone to. The teachers were all excellent. Even when other teachers filled in, they were all knowledgeable on child development — helping to diffuse conflict between children and modeling appropriate yet simple ways to communicate wants or dislikes, or helping a child calm down in a loving way. The kids knew what was expected and all were included in activities and routines. Teachers were interested in strategies I recommended and actually wrote them down for other teachers and tried to follow up with them. Lastly, there were no screens at this daycare (besides perhaps purposeful program but I never saw it) which was so rare and made me so happy and made my job so much easier! The kids paid much better attention to whatever they were doing as a result. Kids with autism especially can get distracted by TV super easily and constantly stare at the screen making it very difficult to do any therapy.

The staff were good with my daughter but the management is terrible. Justin (the incharge) would never respond emails on time and Leah who is in charge of financial(Goodluck getting hold of her, she is never in her office and never responds to the emails). Make sure you send them 1000 of emails and call them if you want your deposit back. My husband and I send them several emails and I called them more than 15 times to finally get our refund back.

Don't hold your breath on getting in! Everyone knows how difficult it can be to get into a good school in Philadelphia, so when you're provided a timeframe that works with your child's schedule and age, you accept. Well, that's what happened to me at The Caring Center. I went for the tour with my daughter, and gave them the required $50 application fee to get on the waitlist. I was told by SEVERAL people at the school that the wait was a 4-6 month period; something that worked with my daughter's age and schedule. In fact, I stopped my search at other schools, because I figured we'd get in during the time they said.During that time, I called the director at least three times to see where we were on the waitlist. Not once did he return or even accept my phone calls. How professional! Never was I made to think that approaching eight months later, my daughter would still be without a spot on their roster or even a phone call from the school updating us with the status!! Eight months later, my daughter was left with no options and has outgrown her daycare. When I called for a refund of my application fee, I was told they were unable to do so because it was non-refundable. Sure, there's no problem with a non-refundable fee if the information and expectations you give parents are accurate. But when you lure people in by saying there is a 4-6 month wait, and don't have the courtesy to return numerous phone calls checking on the status of things, yes, I have a problem with a school keeping my money.

Great Teachers....very creative. My son is always coming home with something new that he learned. Kids get a nice balance of learning through play. Expensive but definitely worth the price.