Talented Tots Learning Center

We found out from the teachers that on the staffing front, the teachers were responsible for finding their own subs. On that note, they would often not find their own subs and come in sick.

During a drop-off in the morning, the center is chaotic and it appeared the staff was not in control in the classrooms.

Often the main teacher for the room was not in the room during pick-up or drop-off times. As such, we did not have a good feel for the curriculum covered when our child was there during the day. We were supposed to receive daily sheets of our child's day and behavior, but often never received them as they were unavailable. When available, they lacked detailed information and seemed generic.

It appeared the faculty who had their own children in the center would look after their own children first before caring for other children.

Closing staff would be brought in towards the end of the day. When we would go in to ask about our child's day and pick them up, we would often be told that they didn't know because the closing staff just came in at 3 pm. Closing staff were routinely on their cell phones. There were numerous times we picked up our child and she was in soiled underwear (while trying to be potty-trained). The staff would often blame our child in front of her which would, in turn, make her feel ashamed.

There was little communication when a new teacher is brought in. Often we would be brought into a new room and we were not introduced to the teacher. They wouldn't go out of their way to introduce themselves so we were apprehensive about who we were leaving our children with.

The classrooms often seemed out of the state-mandated ratios during drop-off and pick-up. At times, we counted 25:1 (children:teacher) in one room.

Our children were often bumped down in room if there was overcrowding. They would be put in a different age group or room due to this issue. One of our children was bumped down an age group for 3 days in one week which we feel significantly inhibits their learning.

Children were routinely watching movies at the center. When we brought it up to the director, she discounted it and made it sound like they didn't watch movies. Our children would tell us they watched movies several times a week. It seems they would do so to relieve the staff. In January 2012, we entered the center around 9:45 a.m. and saw the children watching tv while the teacher was painting the walls. Why wouldn't they do maintenance work when they are closed or on the weekends?

The facility distributes a menu of what would be fed to the children. We walked in at an odd time around lunch when the children were being served. The children were being fed a single slice of white bread with a piece of processed meat which was not on the menu they hand out to parents. Also, the staff was serving potato chips out of the store-bought bags without gloves. We approached the owner-operator about this situation. She initially denied it and then agreed they should have fruit instead. This was around Thanksgiving and the vendor that they had was closed. They were going to the store and buying food due to the vendor being closed. She said she would rectify the situation by later that day going out and buying some fruit for an afternoon snack.

Our daughter routinely smelled like urine when we picked her up. She said she doesn't wipe when she is in the restroom and no one supervises her. We have witnessed this ourselves with another child who helped herself in the bathroom without anyone supervising.

On the management front, when we brought our concerns to Amy, she would discount them and say we were to blame for not bringing our concerns to her sooner. She said she doesn't know there are any problems unless parents tell her. We would express we wanted our conversations to remain private. After speaking with her, we noticed a change in the interactions between the staff and us which made us believe she may not be keeping these conversations confidential.

Around the holidays, we were often encouraged not to bring our children even though we paid for services. I think the staff would get reduced hours if we did not bring in children so it appeared they were encouraging you to not bring your children for their own benefit when staffing.

The Christmas program for 2011 had changed venue and was held at a church which seemed to have a capacity of 125 people; however, there were well over 200 people trying to attend. We arrived early and still were left standing and couldn't see our children perform due to overcrowding. In previous years, they had it in a school auditorium that was much larger. 

Even the teachers would make comments about not having the appropriate toys, materials for teaching in the room. The toys looked like hand-me-downs or McDonald's toys. Teachers had also said they felt they had to buy their own art supplies because if they had to rely on the center, they wouldn't receive enough or any supplies.

It wasn't uncommon for our children to come home with an excessive amount of bites and scratches. One of our children was scratched six times in one week. We counted because they were so deep and it disturbed us. We do have incident reports filed because of these issues. We would see these incident reports for other children as well; thus, it was consistent and they would often discount it by saying, "He didn't cry" or "It didn't seem that bad."