The Goddard School

To summarize: Our infant / toddler aged son attended Goddard from 2021 - 2023 and was withdrawn because of multiple unreported injuries that happened on premises. Both the director and Goddard strive to maintain an appearance of a top rated daycare, but appearance is all it is. Our son began attending Goddard as an infant, and as he grew to the toddler rooms our concerns grew as well. Beginning in the toddler classes, every morning at drop off we would notice only one adult with as many as 8, sometimes up to 10!, children. Ratios were often not following state minimums and - after I had called corporate to report my concern - I noticed (on multiple occasions) a front desk staff member run to the room when I came in, lingering as the second adult to supervise the children, and returning to the front desk as I left. This had happened at different drop off times and was clearly not routine or scheduled. In addition, on multiple occasions, we were asked to drop off our son in an older classroom as they had combined ages due to short staffing. Because of this, we left our usually happy child crying in an unfamiliar room, with unfamiliar teachers, older children, and play structures that were not age appropriate. As our son got older, it became common for him to come home with unreported injuries. We chose to have faith in the facility and teachers and tried to shrug off the bruises, scrapes, and scratches, chalking them up to a kid being a kid. This continued until our son received a concussion on a play-kitchen table corner, a hard wooden surface. At that point, I insisted they call me with every injury, no matter how small, and asked that they baby proof the corner of the table as they had other furniture in the room. Weeks later they did move the table in the corner of the room, but never placed a corner guard as I asked and they had promised, leaving the same hard wooden corner exposed. On one occasion, I witnessed a toddler teacher forcefully place a crying child in a chair, then placing another chair against their back making them unable to get out or move. I ran to the front desk to inform them immediately. (In this same classroom, children were often left completely unsupervised while the staff members walked into a separate, adjoining room to heat up food. At times they would block the children into a specific area with furniture, and I would enter the room to see children climbing on chairs and tables with no adult present.) We had other concerns as well: continuous and constant high turnover, inappropriate remarks from teachers, inaccurate daily reports through the app (i.e.: stating how much fun they had playing outside on a day with uninterrupted heavy rain), missing cups and lunchboxes, but all of those pale in comparison as to why our experience with Goddard ended. Upon pickup one afternoon, my husband noticed that our son was acting unlike himself: complaining of pain, holding his arm, and not eating or playing. When I called the school to ask why we were not informed, I was told he likely had a bad dream and that they are not required to call "for emotional pain," stating he was acting this way from nap time to pickup time (over 3 hours.) When we arrived home, he became inconsolable. We took him to the hospital that night and, at 2.5 years old, our son had a fractured arm, resulting in multiple doctors visits and wearing a cast for 6 weeks. (Words just aren't enough to explain the screaming of your child during an x-ray or while nurses move their fractured arm.) We urge any parent to consider a different facility for their child while this Goddard is being overseen by the current director and management. There were so many days I attributed my concerns to being a first time parent, but I should have taken every concern seriously: this facility is not what it appears to be and we wish that another parent had warned us of the same. We never would have considered Goddard knowing what we know now, and our biggest mistake was leaving our child in their care.

We’ve been at this Goddard school for over a year now and have been very happy so far! ETA: my oldest has been here for almost 2 years now and my youngest for 1 year, we are still very happy with this Goddard school. The owners are very caring and it shows. Sometimes you see turnover with teachers/assistant teachers but I understand it’s hard in this industry. There are teachers who have been there for years who love my kids and it is such a comfort.

Please do your due diligence before sending your children here. They are not who they claim to be and do not stand for what they state on their website. The teachers yell at the students, grab them and do not provide them with water throughout the day. They also do not write incident reports when children get hurt. This school is horrible. There was no structure or educational activities throughout the day and for outdoor play, the children were only permitted to play on the grass with a hard basketball and no other source of toys or stimulation. When the basketball was thrown over the small fence by one of the children, the teacher said "oh well, these are your consequences". The classroom was out of ratio, the entire time I was there, with 1 teacher to 14 students. I am heartbroken for all of those innocent children. They deserve so much better. The only thing the teacher was concerned with was taking pictures of the students up against the fence or sitting at a table to upload to their app. This school should be shut down until they can properly staff it.

My son came home one day with a severe diaper rash to where his skin was raw and my poor baby was walking with his legs spread apart and crying saying that his butt hurt. He would also have knots on his head, bruises, scratches and bite marks on him when he got home. My husband and I would take turns picking up my son and normally around the same time. But one day I got out of work early and decided to pick him up earlier than I usually do (about 1hr earlier than usual). As I was walking in the hallway to my son's class I could hear the teacher yelling my son's name very loud and firm. I walked up to the classroom door and peaked in to see what was happening and I watched his teacher, Izabelle, yell at my son because he threw a Lego block at her. As she was yelling she walked up to my son and grabbed both his arms and started shaking him and yelling at him for him to stop it and to behave. I was furious but also hurting because I had witnessed someone I trusted with my baby hurting him. She had a tight grip on my sons arms because I watched my son attempt to throw himself to the floor and he couldn't, his feet were dangling in the air as if he was on a swing. I immediately walked into the classroom and the teacher, Isabelle, let go of my son's arms and turned around. When she noticed me standing there she looked as if she saw a ghost and stood there still. So many things ran thru my mind on what to say/do at that very moment but I kept myself mindful and respectful of other peoples kids being present so all I said to her was to never reprimand my son like that ever again. She remained quiet and just started cleaning up the toys that were laying around. I immediately grabbed my son and his belongings and went straight to the front desk and asked for the owner. I was told the owner was not on the premises today. I demanded that the owner contact me right away and I also told the front desk what had just happened and what exactly I witnessed. She told me she would have the owner contact me. This event happened on a Friday. Within 1hr of me picking up my son I received a called from a blocked NO CALLER ID. I answered it and it was the owner of the Goddard. She asked me to tell her what happened and what I thought I saw. I told her that I know what I saw and I told her exactly what happened. I spoke to the owner for about 45min on the phone. She expressed that she could tell I was very upset because for me to please calm down. She told me she would speak to the teacher on Monday in person and give me a call back because she wanted to give the teacher an opportunity to give her side. I told her she didn't need to give me a call back on Monday because I would be coming in with my husband to speak to her regarding the matter. Monday came and my husband and I went into her office and the owner states she hadn't spoken to the teacher yet because she didn't get to the school until the afternoon because she was a student. She continued on to ask what did we want her to do. I was very adamant about the teacher staying away from my son. She said ok and continued to go on about how the teacher came from a big family of 12 and how her background isn't the greatest but that she would make sure she would not be around my son anymore. My son's belongings began to disappear. On 2 different occasions I came to pick up my son early and Izabelle, the teacher I caught putting her hands on my son, was in the same class as my son and I would ask the front desk why was she near my son and they would apologize and say it was a mistake and wouldn't happen again. My husband and I also noticed on multiple occasions when we would walk into the school the front desk personnel, Donna, would run to our sons classroom and buzz us in once she got to the classroom. It made us feel as if she was trying to get to the classroom before us incase something was going on she would catch it before us. I would not recommend this establishment to anyone, it's not safe for children. DO YOUR RESEARCH AND READ THE REVIEWS WHETHER GOOD OR BAD.

I am very pleased with this Goddard school. My son has been enrolled for the past three years, and he has done so well. My daughter will be joining this school in December, and I am confident she will have a wonderful experience as well. I am impressed with the great teachers, the clean and safe environment, and all of the activities that are provided for the children. I am also quite impressed with the new owner, Alisa. She has made some changes which have only enhanced the school. I also appreciate her friendly demeanor, and she is always willing to take the time to answer any of my questions.