Kid's Prep Academy

To begin, withdrawing my son from Kid’s Prep Academy was a difficult choice. He had been attending the daycare since he was six months old (he is 15 months now), and he had grown quite fond of the staff and the other children in his class. Therefore, his transition to a new daycare did not go smoothly. The workers at Kid’s Prep were generally very nice to us, and they seemed to take good care of the children. Additionally, the meals they offered seemed well prepared and were within the USDA nutrition guidelines. Unfortunately, these positive qualities were offset by the director herself, whose name I will withhold in this review. There is a fine line between common sense and adherence to policy, and the director of Kid’s Prep clearly favored the latter of these. The best example occurred when our son got sick and was put on antibiotics. We kept him out for the time that was recommended by the doctor and then returned him to daycare when he was no longer contagious. However, one of the side effects of said antibiotics is loose, discolored stool. We informed staff members of this condition, which was verified by our pediatrician, but our son was sent home anyway. Also, as our child has always had problems with his digestive system (a fact that was addressed early on), my wife and I quickly burned through our sick days due to the sheer number of times our son was sent home. Granted, some of these calls were due to legitimate illnesses, which I had no problems with, but many days were spent picking up a child with no verifiable ailment. By contrast, the new daycare provider we have, the name of which I will also withhold, has been very accommodating in keeping our son, even in events when he has exhibited gastrointestinal distress. The director of Kids Prep Academy appeared to have a mantra, which she apparently relished using whenever we questioned her actions: “It’s state policy.” If you decide to utilize Kid’s Prep Academy’s services and have a child who has any health condition (allergy, stomach problem, etc.) that requires extra attention, be prepared to forfeit all of your sick days and/or your employer’s good will because you will have to pick up your child often. The window of time that you will have in which to retrieve your child is one hour, and they are very firm about this. Of additional interest is the fact that when we withdrew our son, we were informed that we would not be getting our deposit back because we did not give them notice two weeks in advance. Of course, this was in the middle week, so they already had that week’s check, not to mention the majority of the days that he had missed the previous week and that were still paid for. In short, Kid’s Prep Academy was a decent daycare choice until it became too inconvenient to justify the overall cost to both our wallets and our jobs. I honestly do not know if other parents have had similar experiences with this place, or if the gatekeeper had just taken a dislike to us in particular. Whatever the case, I am simply relaying our story in the hopes that others do not have to undergo the same thing or will at least be prepared for it if they do.