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October 2024 by Jasmine Montoya
Our little one has been attending Santee KinderCare for about 6 months now. We are beyond grateful for how great they have been. Firstly with dealing with us being so emotional at the first drop offs to now, helping us wean our little one to sippy cups and wearing shoes. The transition from the infant room to the toddler room is scary in general, but the staff has been great! They’re so sweet, and show so much love for our baby girl. We are so thankful for them! There’s no way we’d be able to work without them. They are our village.
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June 2024 by Kimberly Lagunas
The director Monica is absolutely unprofessional and a mistake to have running this daycare. My older kids used to go here and when I wanted to enroll my baby I had to find a new place since she has clearly run this place into the ground. I’d say go elsewhere unless they bring in someone else. She has far too many kids with one adult in the classrooms that it’s so chaotic and no structure. I saw some lady asleep on the floor in her office, she was obviously trying to hide it with the blinds shut to her office. I caught a conversation between her and an employee in the hall and the way she spoke to them was horrifying. I’d recommend anywhere else until they replace her..
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May 2023 by Camshee C
Working with this corporation has been the biggest nightmare.My children have never attended this school. Six months after our tour I'm still getting calls saying that we missed a payment. I spoke to the family line who say to call the center and talk with the director, which I have multiple times, and she says I have no outstanding payments.Fast-forward to today where I receive an email from a debt collecting agency.A DEBT COLLECTING AGENCY!MY KIDS NEVER ATTENDED THE SCHOOL!I don't know who to talk to. I keep getting the run around and I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO.
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May 2023 by Kari H.
I recommend this daycare for your kids if they are under 2. My son started with Ms. Andrea at 8 months old. She is one of the best teachers we had there. You can tell she really loves her job and cares about the kids so much. Even when my son moved up to the other classrooms, he would stop by to see the babies and say hi to her. My son loved going to school here. They have delicious food (breakfast, lunch, and snack) all cooked and served by their in-house chef, Ms. Maria. Honestly, I think they helped expand my son's palate more than I could have done at home. They got to play outside a lot, even as infants. They do a lot of arts and crafts and music and dancing. I loved seeing updates on the app throughout the day. It' a great program for the most part.The reason I can't give a 5 star review is because my son was the target of a biter in his class. He would come home with bite marks fairly often once he moved into the Toddler classroom (16mo-24mo). I feel like supervision started lacking in this room and he wasn't getting as much attention as before. The classroom was really cool with a little play structure inside, but I think it was a lot of 'free play time' for the most part. I knew it was time to leave when my son turned 2 years old, because the ratio goes from 1:6 to 1:12 with twice as many students. The opening room has a lot of older kids and it was too chaotic during drop offs. Sadly, we had to leave our friends and teachers behind for another daycare setting.
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May 2023 by Sheena F.
Working with this corporation had been the biggest nightmare. My children have never attended this school. Six months after our tour I'm still getting calls saying that we missed a payment. I spoke to the family line who say to call the center and talk with the director, which I have multiple times, and she says I have no outstanding payments. Fast-forward to today where I receive an email from a debt collecting agency. A DEBT COLLECTING AGENCY!MY KIDS NEVER ATTENDED THE SCHOOL!I don't know who to talk to. I keep getting the run around and I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO.
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April 2023 by Jessica Harkless
We’ve been going to KinderCare for just about a year now, and It has been a wonderful experience. My son came in with a slight speech delay and a major push for KinderCare was the structured age appropriate curriculum. It has helped boost his language development. Plus there is a lot of time an activities spent outside and various art projects, he has made so many friends, and the teachers are wonderful and so invested in each child.
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September 2022 by Nancy P.
My hope is to be as transparent as possible to help any parent who is going through the very stressful process of finding the right fit for their little one. My son is 21 months old and we were in the toddler room from July to today. Environment:-I really like the school like setting, facility is clean and orderly. -Closed only on major holidays, no last minute trips or a week of closure at a time. -Includes variety of meals & snacks Curriculum: -A benefit of a larger facility versus in home daycare is there is a calendar of curriculum that follows closely with the child's development--Kindercare has neat themes of the week and follows a lesson plan. Staffing: -One of my biggest concerns for any daycare setting has always been staffing--as you see from previous yelp reviews, that was a concern of other parents here. When I asked about this during our tour, the Assistant Director said that those reviews are old and they have no issues now. That was not the case. Many times there were comments about staffing during drop off. Two times my son was moved to a different classroom due to staffing and I was not informed.-I felt like the lead teacher played favorites: saw her doing the same little girl's hair a few times during drop off, or had her in her lap in almost all the pictures in the app. This little girl didn't seem to have any trouble or anything to need this, so that was strange.--There were some staff that did seemed like they actually cared, and had genuine kindness. Kids pick up on that. Even after 3 weeks, when the lead teacher came to the door at drop off, my son would whine and start to fuss. (Maybe this is the treatment towards him from lead teacher? Or he picked up on the favoritism?) When it was another teacher at drop off, my son was totally fine and went right into her arms. -Some people have bad days here and there, and that's understandable--felt like lead teacher, director, and assistant director had the opposite: good days that were far and inbetween. Would it hurt to smile or look like you're enjoying your job? As part of leadership, makes me assume that is one reason for high turn over. Communication:-Poor communication, and when there was communication it was short, unprofessional, and did not answer my questions fully. Couple of times I had to send messages twice to get a reply or acknowledgement. -They have a neat app, similar to brightwheel, but I wonder if what they inputted was always accurate: i.e. my son eats a snack or breakfast in the morning sometimes, and I would see that he ate all his breakfast as daycare. Strange. Also felt like the pictures were more checking the box of 2 photos minimum a day, rather than being interactive/sharing something that he was doing/learning/milestone etc. -I had to take my son out for 3 days for my mother-in-law's memorial. When I messaged them to inform them there was no reply..no condolences or even acknowledgment. Not sure if that is a representation of character, or being overworked, or both? But they DID make sure to message me about a missing payment for that week--only later to tell me it was another family (I know the policy and had already paid). Sick policy:-Safety of the our kid and other kids is priority. 100%. But being sent home for 48 hours for temperature that was .4 over the limit, when it was 100 degrees outside for almost 2 weeks, and no other symptoms was the last straw for me. When I picked him up he did not have a fever, was happy, eating, sleeping, not even a runny nose or cough. Makes me wonder if it was more of a staffing thing..I know there is no perfect place, these are just things I wish I knew/followed my gut. Especially when there is a waitlist everywhere for kids under 2 years old.We are now going to Le Petite, and I have to tell you--my experience so far is night and day. Director is responsive, genuine, transparent, clear, took her time to explain things, made me feel very grounded. Most of all she seemed to enjoyed her job. I look forward to feeling like family here. The onboarding process ha
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March 2022 by Danielle V.
If I could leave zero stars I would. DO NOT SEND YOUR CHILD/CHILDREN HERE! WORST DAYCARE WE HAVE EVER HAD!!! We were unhappy with the level of care provided, especially the constant teacher and director turn over, lack of communication and miscommunication, numerous closures and staffing insufficiencies leading to no care being provided, incorrect billing charges during closures where no care was provided, prolonged reimbursement periods, and lack of cleanliness resulting in our child's numerous illnesses from their facility. After giving the proper notice that we were switching daycares, they used our diapers and wipes for other children before we could take everything that belonged to us.We tried contacting the regional director numerous times and she never returned our calls. How can they correct their deficiencies when no one cares enough to respond to concerned parents.Whatever you do, please do not send your child/children here!!
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March 2022 by Frank V.
Do yourself a favor and find another daycare. My kids were constantly sick and had new teachers every couple of weeks. While we attended we had three differnt directors. Pretty sure they have never deep cleaned that school. Place is trash we pulled kids our kids out as soon as we could. The regional director never replied when we tried to give feedback. Id avoid this place until they get there act together.
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December 2021 by April E.
Highly recommend!! Wendy is the best teacher, the kids love her! The teachers there are highly qualified and care deeply about their children.
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December 2021 by Colleen Dennison
I can only comment on the infant room, but for the love of all things Infant… do not send your baby here.
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October 2021 by Eric G.
Worst care I know they are short staffed due to issue but my kid shouldn't have to suffer
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December 2020 by Sona Baghoyan
Santee Kindercare was truly a blessing for our family. Being far from our family and friends and new to the county, this place helped us out by taking good care of our daughter, who had no friends here. Start was dramatic but these people literally made my 2 year old daughter love it! Now she doesn't rush to go home and I see how gladly she goes back to "school " every morning. Her teacher Ms Fabiola is the best! Responsive and reliable, friendly and so nice! My daughter says "Ms Fabiola is my friend ', should I say more?! The stuff also is very friendly and responsive.I recommend Santee Kindercare! ❤
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December 2019 by Sandy H
I love all the staff here! The most important thing is that your child is happy and mine gets so excited to go everyday. Started as an infant and is now a toddler. Their excitement everyday tells me how much they love it here. They teach them curriculum and feed them so good, which is so important. The activities and events they do is so great and fun. I wish they didn’t stop at 5 years old. Love this place and recommend it to all! The manager is so great and I hope she never leaves!
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December 2019 by Jennifer Breeding
Our son has been with Kindercare since August 19, 2019 and has had such a great experience. His teachers care so much about him and his progress, and as educators we appreciate all the learning experiences they provide. We take great comfort in leaving our son with them every day. Highly recommend Kindercare! Great staff and facility!
