Lavalette International Montessori Institute, Mission

Avoid this place if you truly care about your child's safety and education. Notice the only positive reviews are from 7 years ago at the same time! This place is not conducive to a child's development in an independent way, as the Montessori style really is. Through thorough investigating and hiring a private investigator we found that they are not an actual Montessori school simply by the rules and restrictions they follow. Required uniforms, which through our investigation are bought at an extreme discount with poor quality fabrics then sold to the parents as a requirement for $70+ per uniform. A real certified Montessori would never require uniforms because the teaching of Maria Montessori is about being independent and doing things at your own pace. On top of that, all of the kids are rewarded with nothing but candy sugar and unhealthy treats whenever there is an event. Oh and then there is there lunch schedule if you choose to go that route, it consists of Pizza, Tamales, tacos from Rochas (low quality), and Chick fill-a. Then on top of that their failure to report and acknowledge multiple incidents with two of our kids , one was bitten on the shoulder and was crying but they brushed it off as they were busy with one of the students. Then another where our older child was grabbed by the arm multiple times by another kid saying a he wanted to rip his skin off and eat his arm. Again, they played it off as kids being kids, not knowing or concerned that these type of words affect a child. They honestly don't care about your children's safety and development. It's a business for them. Unfortunately they can put the Montessori name in front of their " school" because it's not protected or patented. Rest assured this is not a real Montessori, independent background checks revealed most of the teachers there, which some are great, are not able to qualify to teach at an accredited school so they end up here. Honestly unless you are OK with kids lacking attention, develop at their own pace, and want them to have healthy eating habits. Avoid this place at all costs. They are currently under investigation and probably won't be around much longer. Good luck parents. There are other great schools for young kids around here that actually follow the program rather than just sticking a name in front of what they are for credibility. Oh one more edit parents: please for the safety of your child look at other options. If the 7 year old reviews by their own employees isn't enough, look for more recent reviews.

We want to make it clear that this is not a review based on the services of this facility, but on how they handled a situation that we and many others felt was mishandled. We don't believe that a facility should be entitled to decide what is a minor vs. major incident when it comes to children, which in this case they thought this incident was MINOR. In their eyes something minor might be considered a major incident from the point of view of the parents. Unfortunately our incident was just that. From our pediatrician to colleagues that have kids enrolled at this location, all agreed that we should have been notified immediately. I enrolled my son at this facility for a summer camp for socialization purposes and for possible enrollment for the fall. After an adjustment period of about a week, I enrolled and prepaid for him to attend the second session for only two weeks due to our family vacation plans in which a contract was never signed. Two and a half weeks in, I arrived to pick him up at 1:30 pm and was told another child had bitten him on the arm/shoulder. The teacher told me the incident had happened around 11:00 am and that he had cried for about 5 minutes. Take your phone's stopwatch and experience how long five minutes really is. I asked why I had not been called, and she said that they didn't call unless it was a medical emergency and that I could see the video of the incident. Since I had my son already with me, I told her that my husband would stop by and they could brief him. My husband arrived within 15 minutes and was told by the director that he could not see the video because of privacy issues. Staff claimed that the bite did not break the skin, but it clearly did because it scabbed over. On Friday, my mother and I met with the director to clear up some of the miscommunication/backtracking they did concerning the incident. I reiterated my concern about the severity of the bite while I explained that I in no way wanted to know the identity of the biter but was concerned about the response time in the assistance of my son and the fact that I had not been called immediately. I stated that I had lost trust in the facility and that my son would not be attending the fall and therefore, I asked for a refund for the 2 weeks of the second session we had planned for him to attend since it had not started. She said that she would forward my request to her financial administrator and that it "should not be a problem." An hour later, the director sent an email denying my refund. I responded by explaining this was an extenuating circumstance and asked for her to reconsider due to the mishandling of the incident, vague policies/ "internal procedures," and deleted parent handbooks/guidelines from the app, which had been previously there and confirmed by another parent whose child was currently enrolled. She responded by calling me "intimidating" and accusing me of having expectations that were too high just because I simply questioned policies in a calm manner. This review is NOT about assigning blame. It is about the failure to notify us about the injury to our child. This review is NOT about a refund. We have worked with our bank that has provided us with excellent customer service. We DO want others to know how they handled our situation before a decision is made to enroll their precious child at this location. Included are photos (both initial and on the 5th day - photo that reads Monday 6:50pm) of the bite the staff of this facility considered not important enough to notify a parent immediately, because it was MINOR in their eyes. ***Disclaimer: Be aware that many of the 5 star reviews given to this facility on Google and Facebook come from present employees and/or their family members who have enrolled their children there - do your research! FYI: We're unable to leave a review on google due to the fact that it seems they disabled the ability to post through google. That would make me question the fact of how many other incidents have occurred prior to ours.