Description: Stepanski Early Childhood Center is the best place for your young child to begin his/her school career. We have a large selection of programming to offer children with a variety of various educational needs. Please browse through our many programs and activities. If you have any questions specific to our school, programs, events or registration, we're happy to answer them. Welcome to the Stepanski community!
Where possible, ChildcareCenter provides inspection reports as a service to families. This information is deemed reliable, but is not guaranteed. We encourage families to contact the daycare provider directly with any questions or concerns, as the provider may have already addressed some or all issues. Reports can also be verified with your local daycare licensing office.
| DC630017147_CAP_20230120.pdf.pdf - 01/20/2023 |
| DC630017147_INSP_20221208.pdf - 12/08/2022 |
| Corrective Action Plan - 03/19/2022 |
| Renewal Inspection Report - 03/19/2022 |
| DC630017147_CAP_20211216.pdf.pdf - 12/16/2021 |
| DC630017147_RNWL_20210702.pdf - 07/02/2021 |
| Corrective Action Plan - 04/23/2021 |
| Inspection Report - 03/26/2021 |
| DC630017147_CAP_20210319.pdf.pdf - 03/19/2021 |
| DC630017147_INSP_20210224.pdf - 02/24/2021 |
| Corrective Action Plan - 01/17/2021 |
| Special Investigation Report - 01/10/2021 |
| DC630017147_CAP_20201222.pdf.pdf - 12/22/2020 |
| Corrective Action Plan - 08/31/2020 |
| Renewal Inspection Report - 06/15/2020 |
If you are a provider and you believe any information is incorrect, please contact us. We will research your concern and make corrections accordingly.
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My 4-year-old son was returned to this school by his father + suffered a head injury on 11/4/19. No staff witnessed it, no incident report was issued. Filed a complaint on 11/8/19 to LARA on this matter. Previous incidents had occurred in less than 2 months time. Too many in such a short time than I could be comfortable with as a parent. Some were handled in a manner that was in line with the occurrence, others were absolutely not.
A Waterford School district official relayed supervision shortfalls + corrections based on the 11/4/2019 incident, but I still did not get the details of how it happened + where. The details of another incident still remain unknown based on the refusal of my son's GSRP teacher to elaborate + clarify the severe "itch" scratches on his face. Mind you, this school has cameras everywhere, but clearly it is for THEIR protection based on the sheer lack of details. They maintain a "privacy" protocol for other students and parents, but they can maintain said privacy and STILL provide helpful information to a parent presenting with concerns, but that is not a utilized concept on the part of my son's teacher and the principal of this school.
The worst of it is that the principal prefers to absolve herself and deflect when she is approached by a parent with matters of concern. And approached more than once. I was in her office to meet with her when my son first started at Stepanski to flag a couple of initial / borderline incidents that were not noticed by staff. It was only when I escalated to the senior official / district / state level that I ended up getting responses and some action. The principal was not effective in demonstrating effort, advice, or direction.
If you need to save money on child care costs or pre-school tuition, my recommendation is that you seek out programs at other sites or schools, not at Stepanski Early Learning Center. And clarify exactly HOW you want to be contacted in specific matters of "boo-boos" or injuries you will not be happy seeing (multiple times) on child pick up at the end of the day. If it's not a head injury (that they don't miss...hence my LARA report), they do not default to, or simply take the time, to CALL YOU. They will send you a message through an app and then quote the section in the Parent Handbook and say, in effect, 'See, you WERE contacted'.
When you're used to a "Hey, everything is okay, but just want to let you know *this happened*" call which provides a level of comfort + confidence that your child is in good hands, experiencing the contrast can be super-concerning and scary, to say the least. I have had similar positive experiences at other Waterford schools. My oldest attended Knudsen for a time and the school office did the same. Confirmed with his new school (Schoolcraft) that they do the same. Conveying this to the principal + GSRP teacher at Stepanski was not fruitful. My recommendation to them would be to delegate parent call notifications to the office admin(s). This small effort might contain and mitigate issues raised by parents who are clear in their level of concern and will not take no-answers or vague answers as an acceptable response or plan of action.
When uneventful day-to-day school doings are in effect all is copasetic, but, at this point observation and experience points to the possibility of staff and school management not listening to you, taking your concerns seriously, or following in a suitable, timely manner. Particularly when it comes to visible injuries.
It's clear that other centers and schools maintain a different approach and that is something Stepanski can learn from. The default, loose level of standards at this school is something that needs to be evaluated by every parent considering this school for their child. Particularly when it comes to them getting hurt or the parent noticing 'off' things or unexplained injuries on pickup. Be mindful and be vigilant. Especially when dealing with the principal there.