Bright Minds Learning Center Llc

I have been back and forth about posting this, but after spending the past week home with an extremely sick baby, I have decided that if I can save even one child from the hell we have experienced, it would be worth the time to post. I apologize in advance for the length, but I want to be thorough.
As a first time mom with no prior experience with daycare, I had no idea what to look for. I read reviews and looked over websites, and I did a few facility tours. All I have to say is: Things aren’t always as they appear, and sometimes you have to look just a little closer. I didn’t see the red flags until we were enrolled, so I’m hoping to keep other moms from making the mistake I did.

Let’s talk about Bright Minds Learning Center in Wasilla.

My baby spent 5 days in this place, and I’d like to share the details of our experience. I’d like to start by saying that I have a very happy baby. She rarely cries, she’s very independent and yet very social. She loves being around other people, adults and kids alike. This is important to note, because aside from the things I saw, she did not need words to tell me she was not happy.

Day 1: I picked my baby up and took her home. When I changed her diaper, I discovered that whoever had changed her at daycare didn’t bother to clean her appropriately, and she still had poop in all her little folds and crevices and her whole butt was as red as fire.

Day 2: When I got there to pick her up, I found her sitting on the floor by herself and crying her eyes out. It was obvious from the look of her face that she had been crying for quite a while.

Day 3: I get a call around lunch time about an “incident” that happened at breakfast where my child got bit by another child. According to the incident report, she was “taking food from multiple friends and dumping it out. She was redirected and the other child used all the tools he had before resorting to biting her.”
A couple of things to note about this:
—-my child was 15 months old, but was born 2 months premature, so she was developmentally 13 months old. She eats in her high chair at home and has not yet learned how to eat from plates/bowls or use utensils. This was communicated to the director and assistant director upon enrollment, yet they still sat her at the table with the other kids and put a bowl in front of her that she had no idea what to do with.
—-when I inquired about the incident, I was told that the child that bit her was a 2 year old that’s used to the other kids knowing “this is mine.”
—-when I asked where the person was that was supposed to be watching them, I was told they must have been tending to another child, and yet the incident report claimed she was “redirected”. So there could have been some intervention to prevent the situation in the first place.
—-when I asked why there was a 2 year old in the room with the babies (6weeks-19months), I was told that everyone gets dropped off in that room in the morning until their class opens. This was NOT communicated with me prior to then. More on this topic from day 4 and 5.

Day 4: I took her to daycare at about 11am, the moment I put her down in that room, she started screaming hysterically. I knelt down to try to calm her, so I grabbed a few toys off of the shelf for her. I immediately noticed the layer of black filth that coated the toys. I also noticed a child that seemed quite a bit older than 19 months, but I did not ask about him at that time. She moved over near one of the other kids and seemed calm, so I quietly walked out the door. As soon as I closed the door, she started screaming again.

Day 5: It was 10:30am when I dropped her off. I noticed the same older child from the day before in the room with the babies. This time, there was a worker sitting on the floor with him and telling him that he “had to be in with the wobbler room today and that he would be in trouble in the other room for his behavior”. This told me he didn’t belong in that room, which I already suspected. My child screamed as I left again.
This is when I decided to give notice that I would be withdrawing her, and the lady (Heather) asked for reasons. I outlined all of the above. She lied to my face about the age of the child I saw and claimed my child was happy there, all while I could hear her screaming. I then presented her with one of the visibly filthy toys and asked if she would want her child playing with it. She again lied and said they had just cleaned all the toys and must have missed that one, but every toy in that room looked that way, as it had the day before.
On this day, my child’s father picked her up and said that when he got there, she was shoeless, missing a sock, and had clearly been crying for quite a while.

According to the logs they use to communicate daily activities to parents, my child was going several hours without a diaper change.

On the day that I returned to collect my child’s belongings, they were scrubbing, right down to one of the workers saying they needed a chisel to get off something that had been there since who knows when? Apparently when they figure out that a Mama is angry enough to withdraw their child without being concerned about losing the $950 in tuition, they start preparing for a visit from the licensing office.
I asked about a refund, because $950 is a lot of money for 5 days of neglecting my child. I was told about their no refund “policy”.
I asked about their policy on diaper changes, and the lady (Kim) said they change them every 2-3 hours. When I asked why my child went a whole lot longer without a diaper change, she lied and said that some of the diaper changes don’t get logged if there’s glitches with the app or something. How do I know this was a lie? The number of diapers missing from the brand new box I took was consistent with the number of times the log reported a diaper change.

Now, my child has a severe cold in addition to hand foot and mouth disease from 5 days in that filthy place, I’ve lost $950 in childcare cost with no offer to make it right, and if you express concerns to the director or assistant director, both of them will lie to your face to get out of the conversation.